On this date nine years ago, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office reported that Sgt. Cory B. Wride had been shot and killed in the line of duty.
Wride had stopped to check on a pulled-over pickup truck on SR-73 between Eagle Mountain and Cedar Fort when he was shot by 27-year-old Jose Angel Garcia Jauregui. Wride eventually died from his injuries. Jauregui also died following a high-speed chase and shootout with officers.
“Today, the weather conditions are just like it was nine years ago,” said Garrett Dutson, Sheriff’s deputy for the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.
Dutson has been with the UCSO for 14 years, nine of them with the department’s Eagle Mountain division. For two of those nine years, Wride was Dutson’s sergeant.
“He was my sergeant for two years,” said Dutson. “Myself and my partner, Max Morgan, were on duty with him that day.”
Since his death, Wride has been hailed as a hero by the UCSO and many communities around the state, especially in Eagle Mountain.
Only a few months after his death, the state renamed SR-73, the road where he was killed in the line of duty, as Cory B. Wride Memorial Highway.
In 2018, Eagle Mountain City also opened Cory B. Wride Memorial Park, located near the Overland neighborhood.
Also along SR-73, near the location where Wride was killed, is the Cory B. Wride memorial, which proudly displays two American flags along with Wride’s name and badge number.
Each year on the anniversary of his death, the UCSO honors Wride with a moment of silence at the site of the memorial. Deputies not in attendance also participate via radio on the signal from dispatch.
“Sometimes, being out there, it seems like it just happened the other day,” says Dutson. “A lot of us that are in law enforcement, we do it for the purpose of protecting our communities and doing the right thing. And I know that’s what Cory’s big thing was, doing the right thing.”
Dutson, who helps organize the memorial each year on Jan. 30, is also responsible for the memorial case to Wride that is displayed in the office of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office Eagle Mountain division at Eagle Mountain City Hall.
“His death reminds us of the importance of our job and taking pride in that job and doing what needs to be done to protect the awesome citizens that we serve,” says Dutson.
The moment of silence scheduled for Monday in honor of Sgt. Wride will be held at 1:15 p.m. — around the time of Wride’s reported death.
