Following a deadly hit-and-run incident on I-15, a Santaquin police officer was identified

Santaquin, Utah – Sgt. Bill Hooser is the Santaquin police officer who passed away after being struck by a suspect in a semi-truck on I-15.

Sen. Mike McKell of Utah revealed and verified the existence of a GoFundMe page set up to help Hooser’s family.

Hooser left behind a wife, two kids, two son-in-laws, and a baby granddaughter, according to the campaign.

When authorities learned that someone was standing on the back of a truck trailer while it was moving north on I-15 in Santaquin, Hooser was slain on Sunday morning.

Just before 6:30 a.m., according to Hooser and a Utah Highway Patrol trooper, the semi was located.
Officials said that the culprit, subsequently identified as 42-year-old Michael Aaron Jayne, turned around the wrong way during a traffic check and struck both enforcement vehicles and Hooser.

He reportedly stole a white Ford pickup after making his escape on foot. After crashing the truck during a chase in the Vernal area, Jayne was arrested.

A local family claimed to have seen Jayne taken into custody by police while traveling on Highway 191.

“How could he do that? How could you know that you caused harm to somebody and just leave the scene and not even stay or care what happened to him?” said Jana Fitzgerald, who witnessed the arrest.

While Jayne was being sought, some cities were placed under a shelter-in-place order.

Fitzgerald and her family saw Jayne taken into custody there.

“All of a sudden, we see dirt, and I was like, ‘what is that?’ We saw black marks going across the road down into a ravine. The cops were running across the road,” Fitzgerald said.

According to Fitzgerald, Jayne was arrested by police who swarmed to the ravine.

“You could see the cops with the batons trying to break out the window on the passenger side because they couldn’t get him out,” she said.

The Fitzgerald family stated that their community will be greatly impacted by this awful event.

“The family is going to have to pay for it for the rest of their lives. Not having a father or a husband around,” said Brett Fitzgerald, another eyewitness to the arrest. “Someone was hurt today; somebody died because somebody was careless.”