Staff Report

Christopher Allen Shirrell

ROCHESTER — A Rochester man was recently arrested after allegedly dealing narcotics to a man who died as a result of a drug overdose.

Christopher Allen Shirrell, 36, 430 W. 5th St., Rochester, is charged with dealing in a controlled substance resulting in death, a level 1 felony; possession of methamphetamine, a level 4 felony; and possession of a narcotic drug, a level 6 felony.

On Aug. 16, a Rochester police officer was notified of a possible overdose. Upon arrival at the residence, the officer found Derrick G. Fisher, 37, Rochester, laying nearly lifeless on a bathroom floor. Fisher was the only person at the residence at the time.

According to court documents, the officer administered Narcan multiple times to Fisher. When medics arrived on scene, officers looked for identifying information for Fisher that would assist medics in treating him.

While looking around the residence, officers found several items associated with illegal narcotics. Officers eventually found an item containing Fisher’s identifying information. Upon going back to medics, officers saw the medics performing CPR on Fisher. Eventually, Fisher was pronounced deceased.

Officers then searched the residence further as part of Fisher’s death investigation. During the search, more items associated with illegal narcotics were found. It was also later discovered that there were fresh needle marks on Fisher’s arm.

Officers then spoke with one of Fisher’s neighbors. The neighbor said he noticed a man in a vehicle arrive and go into Fisher’s residence. Another neighbor had surveillance camera footage of the person in their vehicle.

The video showed Fisher handing the vehicle’s driver something. The driver is then shown going into the residence with several items in his hands. One item was a cup containing an orange liquid and another was a black case containing several narcotics. Both of these items were found in Fisher’s residence.

Through prior dealings with the vehicle’s driver, officers identified the driver as Shirrell. Fisher’s neighbor also identified the driver as Shirrell.

One of Fisher’s relatives said both Fisher and Shirrell were friends, and that Shirrell had previously stayed at Fisher’s residence.

On Aug. 25, an officer informed the investigating officer in this matter that they had arrested a subject who was driving the vehicle that Shirrell was driving at the time of Fisher’s death. During the incident, the officer recovered two cellphones as evidence.

While searching the cellphones, officers found numerous messages from extracted data related to the sale/transfer of illegal narcotics. Some of the text messages related to Fisher’s death and helping Shirrell get out of town after Fisher’s death.

On Sept. 11, officers received Facebook search warrants for Shirrell’s Facebook account. It was discovered that Shirrell’s account was deleted a few days after Fisher’s death. On his Facebook account, Shirrell had several messages with different people that made it clear he was dealing illegal narcotics. Messages between Shirrell and Fisher had also been deleted from Shirrell’s Facebook account.

Through Fisher’s multiple Facebook accounts, officers found message conversations between Fisher and Shirrell that made it apparent that Shirrell is Fisher’s narcotics dealer.

On Sept. 14, the Fulton County coroner provided officers with toxicology results from Fisher at the time of his death. The results came back with amphetamine, methamphetamine, designer opioids and fentanyl in Fisher’s system.

Shirrell was booked in the Fulton County Jail on Oct. 28.