A truck driver is accused of causing the death of a police officer during a traffic stop on a Utah highway on Sunday. He allegedly hit the officer with his truck.
A police officer and a highway patrol officer stopped a big truck at 6:30 am because someone called 911 to say they saw a person standing on the back of the truck as it was driving north on Interstate 15.
The police in Spanish Fork said that a man drove away while they were trying to stop him. Then he turned the big truck around and drove the wrong way on the highway. The big truck hit two police cars and the Santaquin officer died at the scene.
The police found out that the truck driver’s name is Michael Aaron Jayne and he is 41 years old. Police said that he has not been put into jail yet and he does not have a lawyer to speak for him.
The name of the officer who died has not been made public by the authorities.
“Our whole team is injured. ” “The officer’s family is upset because of a pointless act by one person,” said Spanish Fork police Lt Cory Slaymaker at a news conference.
The stop happened on the I-15 in Santaquin, a town with around 14,000 people, 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.
Officials say that Jayne ran away and took cars, including a pickup truck. He was caught by the police on Sunday after a brief chase in the Vernal area, about 160 miles east of Santaquin.
Slaymaker said they were still investigating who was riding on the back of the semitrailer and why.