‘You just instantly know they’re hurting’: Families unite in grief at fallen officers’ memorial
SALT LAKE CITY — As the names of fallen officers echoed through the memorial service, Shante Johnson stood quietly, her heart breaking for two families whose lives had just changed forever.
“You just instantly know that they’re hurting. That their lives will never be the same,” Johnson said, her voice heavy with emotion. “And you kind of start reliving all of the stuff you’ve been through, knowing that that’s all coming down the pipeline.”
Johnson knows the pain intimately. Nearly 12 years ago, her husband, Officer Derek Johnson, was ambushed and killed in the line of duty.
On September 1, 2013, Johnson was making his final stop of the shift when he approached what appeared to be a broken-down vehicle. Timothy Walker opened fire, killing Johnson and injuring another person in the car before turning the gun on himself. Walker survived and is now serving life without parole at the Utah State Prison.
This week, Johnson joined other families at a memorial honoring Lee Sorensen and Eric Estrada — two officers recently lost in the line of duty.
For Kinda Hooser, the grief is still raw. Her husband, Santaquin Sgt. Bill Hooser was killed on May 5, 2024, during a traffic stop on I-15. Authorities say Michael Jayne ran him over with a semi-truck. Jayne now faces capital murder charges and is accused of attacking multiple deputies at the Utah County Jail.
“This is the first one that I’ve attended,” Hooser said quietly. “It’s all too fresh right now. It’s all too real.”
Despite the pain, Hooser says the support from the community has been overwhelming — and deeply appreciated.
“They do see it, I promise they do see it,” she said, referring to the families of fallen officers. “It does not go unnoticed.”
As the ceremony closed, the weight of shared grief hung in the air. But so did the strength of a community that continues to stand behind its heroes — and the families they leave behind.
This story was adapted from a TV broadcast script using artificial intelligence. Every story, including those adapted with AI, is reviewed by a human editor before publication to ensure that KSL’s editorial standards are upheld.
Retail group relieved police petty crime change not ‘hard and fast rule’
9:11 am on 27 May 2025 Share this
Retail NZ is still waiting to meet with Police Minister Mark Mitchell, after calling for an urgent meeting about the directive. Photo: RNZ / Calvin Samuel
A retail group says it accepts police don’t have the resources to investigate every report of crime.
A recent memo directed police staff not to investigate crimes under a certain value, such as shoplifting allegations under $500.
Police clarified this was not a firm rule and that investigations were triaged on a combination of value and solvability.
“We’re pleased that the police have clarified there isn’t a hard and fast rule against investigating these lower value crimes … Ideally we would have the police turning out to every report of crime but we understand they just don’t have the resources to be able to do that,” Retail NZ advocacy manager Ann-Marie Johnson said.
Retail NZ on police response to retail crimes
Morning Report27 May 2025Queue
Johnson told Morning Report the police’s approach to investigating retail crime was why all offences needed to be reported.
She said shoplifting was often committed by repeat offenders.
“We know who the offenders are, the police know who they, are but they often need to build up that pattern and number of offences to be able to take a prosecution.”
Johnson had called for an urgent meeting with Police Minister Mark Mitchell, which she said was yet to be scheduled.
“We meet with Minister Mitchell fairly regularly anyway to keep him updated on our views on retail crime, so we’d expect we’ll be seeing him fairly shortly,” she said.
Mitchell earlier said he was “always available and happy to meet with Retail NZ”.
“They are an important partner in the outstanding efforts being put in by all stakeholders including police in dealing with all forms for retail crime. Police will obviously speak to operational matters.”
On Friday, police national retail investigation support manager Matt Tierney confirmed the police approach to reports of lower-level crime were being standardised, “ensuring more consistency nationwide” and freeing up frontline staff to focus on “the most significant incidents and prolific offenders.”
There was no change to the way police assessed and responded to reports of “lower-level crime”, he said.
Tierney said that if a 111 call was placed regarding an incident such as shoplifting which had just occurred, and the offender was still there or had only just left, this had always been – and would continue to be prioritised for dispatch by police.
“This means that, pending availability, officers will typically be immediately dispatched. This is regardless of the value of goods taken.
“However, the reality is that police cannot attend every such report right away – but we need people to keep reporting incidents to us, so we continue to have a picture of when and where offending is occurring.”
He said the public could “rest assured” that each report had always been, and would continue to be, assessed on its individual merits.
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