John Henry Kerr, Officer

Picher Police Department

The evening of Wednesday, March 11, 1987, Officer Kerr and his partner, Reserve Officer Greg Sweeten, became involved in a high-speed pursuit of a pickup truck. The pursuit lasted about eight miles before Kerr lost control of the police unit and it veered off State Highway 137 and smashed into a culvert about three miles south of Quapaw. Officer Sweeten sustained minor injuries. Officer Kerr suffered severe back injuries and died a week later on the evening of Wednesday, March 18 at St. John Hospital in Tulsa, three days before his forty-first birthday. Officer Kerr was survived by his wife Carol, a son, a daughter plus a stepson and stepdaughter. The driver of the pursued pickup, Jerry Buchanan, Jr., 18, was arrested later and charged with several misdemeanor and felony charges connected to the pursuit.