Not to be confused with Morris Roach or his family, members of The Family in Sonic the Comic Online.
Roach is a character from the Streets of Rage series and is one of the closest friends of Skates. The young man is a typical thug, causing trouble in establishments, dabbling in vandalism and is even a hired assassin. Despite this, minor criminal Skates is happy to spend time with him, especially when Roach remembers his age and just has a good time with his friends.
Roach was first seen losing on a bar's pinball table when the barman asked him to take it easy. Roach's response was to point a gun straight up his antagonist's nostrils, but relented when Skates revealed himself to have left prison. Keen to celebrate, Roach's gang skated off to get some beers. Skates later joined up with his friends while they were vandalising and torching a car, but refused to care about "cops killing cops", despite Skates' stepdead, Officer Murphy, being killed in a revenge attack. When Skates too matters into his own hand, the corrupt police officers captured him and took him to someone who could kill the boy in style - Roach! Instead of murdering his friend, Roach turned the machine gun on Eposito and his two fellow officers, freeing Skates from the boot of the car. Even so, Roach continued to turn a blind eye to corruption and failed to join Skates in his attempt to save the Princess Grace from being destroyed.
Skates' friend was never seen again after this. It is likely that Skates disowned his criminal friend, sticking around Axel Stone, Blaze Fielding and Max Hatchet for the forseeable future. Roach could also have been a potential target for the team, being a gang leader himself, although the vigilantes gravitated towards drug dealers and Mr X.