South Bend Police Thursday identified the innocent bystander killed Wednesday in a police chase as 58-year-old Pedro Rosales. Court records show this wasn’t the first time that the suspect who hit him has run from police.
Police say they’d tried to stop 31-year-old Tyler Wayne Straub because the truck he was driving was reported stolen but he refused. They say less than a minute after an officer activated his overhead lights, Straub ran a red light and hit Rosales at Sample and Michigan streets as Rosales drove east on Sample.
Straub was in jail Thursday awaiting charges from the prosecutor.
In the past, court records say Straub has been charged with resisting law enforcement three times, in 2014, 2022 and 2024. He was found not guilty the first time but in 2022 he pleaded guilty and received a 30-day suspended sentence, and in 2024 he again pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Also in 2022, two months after he was charged with resisting, he was charged with his first felonies, burglary and methamphetamine possession. Prosecutors dropped the burglary charge but Straub pleaded guilty to the possession. A little over a year later he was sentenced to two years, with one year suspended and the other year in community corrections.
