‘I will never understand why this happened’: Emotional funeral honors fallen Utah officer

Santaquin Police Sgt. Bill Hooser's daughter, Shayle Terry, holds her hand over her heart as she and her mother, Kinda Hooser, and sister, Courtney Hooser, follow his casket through the Santaquin City Cemetery on Monday, May 13, 2024. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch)

A carpenter who built furniture that rivaled the work of a master craftsman; a lover of golf and whiskey; a musician who “could play just about anything he wanted”; a country music fan who still listened to pop music to appease his daughters; a dedicated family man who rarely strayed from Kinda, his wife, best friend and teammate. 

That’s how Bill Hooser’s oldest daughter, Shayle Terry, remembered her father on Monday during an all-day funeral service that spanned multiple Utah County towns, boasted an attendance of more than 1,000 police officers from around the country and shut down a section of Interstate 15 for part of the afternoon. 

Hooser, a sergeant with Santaquin Police Department, was killed in the line of duty last week after police say he was intentionally struck by a semitrailer driver who was holding a woman against her will. 

The driver, Michael Aaron Jayne, 42, of Garrett, Indiana, was arrested and is being held without bail under suspicion of aggravated murder targeting a law enforcement officer, attempted murder targeting a law enforcement officer, attempted murder, kidnapping, burglary, vehicle theft and felony evading, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Utah County on Saturday. 

“My dad will be remembered as a police officer who lost his life in the line of duty. By its very definition, he was a hero,” Terry told the crowd of several hundred people at the University of Utah’s UCCO Event Center. “While I believe he was a hero for the job he chose and loved to do, he was a hero to me in many different ways.”

Who was Bill Hooser?

Terry was one of several speakers Monday morning at the university — in attendance was Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, a handful of Utah state senators and representatives, police chiefs and sheriffs representing the state’s largest and smallest departments, and officers from around the country, including Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico and even New York City. 

During the service, Hooser’s family and colleagues painted him as a man with dual identities — Cop-Bill and Bill-Bill. Cop-Bill was serious, hardworking and cared for the officers he supervised, despite taking a tough-love, at times intimidating, approach. 

Bill-Bill was a compassionate and loving husband, father and grandfather; a born leader who mastered his hobbies and made a late-in-life career change from construction to law enforcement. 

The dual identities warranted two eulogies — one for Cop-Bill, given by Santaquin Police Lt. Mike Wall, who told the audience about Hooser’s “personal challenge to solve every case that came to him, no matter how big or small.” 

“It saddens me to know no matter how hard I look or how far I look, I will never be able to replace Sgt. Hooser. He truly, truly was irreplaceable,” an emotional Wall told the crowd. 

Both Terry and Hooser’s younger daughter, Courtney, eulogized “Bill-Bill,” a man whose hardened demeanor would soften when he wasn’t working. Courtney, set to be married this Fall, described the “anger, sadness, grief and confusion” that’s plagued her family since Hooser’s death. 

“I’ve spent the last few days thinking what it was like for my dad laying there lifeless, and what that man took from us without remorse. I’m completely broken. My dad never gets to walk me down the aisle or share the daddy-daughter dance with me. I will never understand why this happened,” she said. “I just long for the day I get to see his beautiful face again.” 

Though it ultimately led to his death, Hooser’s family had no doubts he was meant for a career in law enforcement. “We are a law enforcement family,” Hooser’s wife, Kinda, told the governor when he called them. 

“That touched me to my core,” said Cox, who painted the Hooser family as strong, resilient and proud. 

“Think about that. The very career choice that took the love of her life, her soulmate, the father of her children and a grandfather. That very thing was the thing that defined her and her family,” said Cox, looking directly at Hooser’s family as his voice wavered and tears pooled in his eyes. “She should have said, ‘I wish he never would have gotten into that career.’ She proudly said ‘We are a law enforcement family.’”

A patriotic procession

Following the service, the stretch of I-15 between Orem and Santaquin turned into a spontaneous memorial for Hooser. 

Fire trucks and other government vehicles were parked along nearly every bridge that passed above the highway as children and families flew American flags and waved at passing cars. In Orem, a line of about 10 dump trucks sat parked on the shoulder, each one outfitted with American, Utah and Thin Blue Line flags — cranes flying American flags were parked every few miles after that. Near Spanish Fork, a crew of Dominion Energy workers stood along their trucks near the highway, their orange lights flashing beneath an American flag. 

The highway closed shortly after as a procession of over 700 police cars from around the state slowly escorted Hooser’s casket to his final resting place. 

At about 1:35 p.m., hundreds of officers on police motorcycles turned off Santaquin’s Main Street in a rumbling crawl toward the city cemetery. With bagpipes echoing through the small town, a hearse pulled into the cemetery followed by a limousine transporting Hooser’s immediate family.

Minutes later the motorcycles shuttered off in unison. Aside from a breeze whipping one of the hundreds of American flags lining the way, an eerie silence fell over the town cemetery where thousands of people stood. The sky turned gray as clouds encroached on what had been a clear and warm spring day.

Almost on cue, the sun re-emerged as the powerful whine of bagpipes resumed — pallbearers, some of them Hooser’s immediate family, slowly carried the flag-draped casket across the cemetery. 

Hooser received full honors, which included a helicopter fly-by, a 21-gun salute and a Utah Highway Patrol trooper playing taps on the bugle. As police filed out of the cemetery, officers with the small Santaquin Police Department lined up in front of the gravesite and ceremoniously placed their white gloves on Hooser’s casket. A snow-capped Mount Nebo towered in the distance as the crowd dispersed, leaving only immediate family.

Fatal traffic stop

According to a probable cause statement filed on Saturday in Utah County, Hooser was killed on May 5 after being intentionally struck by Michael Aaron Jayne, who was driving a semitrailer on I-15 in Santaquin. 

Officers had received a call at about 6 a.m. that day claiming Janye’s truck was being targeted by the “Hells Angels,” a biker gang. Utah Highway Patrol troopers began positioning themselves along the highway to intercept the truck — that includes Hooser, who police say stopped Jayne after he blew through a stop sign on the off-ramp, then continued back on to the highway. 

Hooser and another highway patrol trooper parked directly behind Jayne’s semitruck and approached the driver’s side door. 

“The officers made several attempts to reassure Jayne of the reason for the stop and that he was not in any trouble with them. They told Jayne they were there trying to help,” the probable cause statement reads, noting that Jayne was uncooperative and would not answer questions.

That’s when a woman “jumped out of the passenger side door” of the truck and “ran to the back of the trailer and around to the other side with her hands up,” court documents read. 

The woman later told officers she “had been voluntarily riding with Jayne” but he left her behind after the two got into an argument. Jayne returned and coerced her back into his truck, threatening her “with chemical bear spray and a knife,” the probable cause statement reads. 

The woman made contact with Hooser and was “pleading for help,” the court documents read, so Hooser and the trooper approached the vehicle. Before they could detain Jayne, he put the truck in gear and drove away. With Hooser and the trooper running to their cars, Jayne made a U-turn on the highway and began driving toward them. 

“Jayne accelerated the semi-truck very quickly to the point that black smoke was billowing out of the exhaust smokestack as it continued towards Sgt. Hooser,” the probable cause document reads. 

Jayne struck Hooser in the back with the semi-truck, killing him, police said. The trooper and the woman who escaped Jayne’s truck jumped “from the path of the oncoming semi-truck and were able to narrowly escape being struck,” according to court documents. 

Jayne continued to flee, the charges state, stopping about 100 feet further down the road, stopping on the highway and then running to a nearby gas station where he proceeded to commit a litany of crimes, according to officers. He stole a semitrailer, police said, drove to the town of Mona, stole a 1970s-era Ford pickup, drove further south to Mt. Pleasant in Sanpete County and stole another Ford pickup, the probable cause statement reads. 

Jayne then drove north toward Vernal, occasionally steering his vehicle toward oncoming traffic and at times reaching speeds of over 100 mph, officers say. Highway patrol troopers were able to disable the stolen vehicle and Jayne was taken into custody and transported to a hospital. 

Jayne was released from the hospital and booked into Utah County Jail on Saturday. Charges are expected to be filed this week.

The post ‘I will never understand why this happened’: Emotional funeral honors fallen Utah officer appeared first on Utah News Dispatch.