Fallen Utah Highway Patrol trooper Joseph Samuel Brumett III was eulogized Monday as a man who always wanted to be a police officer and who died while doing what he wanted.
"He spent 20 years assuring his mother that if he lost his life as a policeman . . . that he died doing what he loved most, and that he died doing what he wanted to do most," said his mother, Edythe Brumett, during funeral services Monday in Lehi. "I ask you to be happy for him."Fellow UHP officers were invited to attend the funeral, and dozens did from around the state, along with representatives from police and sheriff's departments from across Utah. Utah Gov. Norm Bangerter and Public Safety Commissioner Doug Bodrero also attended the services.
Brumett, 24, died Friday after being hit by a pickup truck on I-15 near the I-80 interchange. He was walking in the southbound traffic lanes trying to stop traffic because of a motorist's disabled vehicle when he was hit.
Brumett first announced to his mother that he wanted to be a police officer at age 4 when he saw an elderly woman crossing the street. He said he wanted to be a police officer "and take care of everybody's grandma," his mother said.
Brumett, known by his friends as Joey, never drank, smoked or took drugs "because he was going to be a cop. And those things weren't good for cops," his mother said.
The observations of his brother-in-law, Leon Harrington, were much the same. When Joey told police stories, "I knew he was happy. I knew he was doing what he wanted to do since he was a child."
Before beginning his duties with the Utah Highway Patrol in June, Brumett worked for about one year as a security officer on Temple Square for the LDS Church. He served as a missionary for the church in Sacramento before that.
His mission president, Gerald Wray, said he had talked with Brumett about his future plans during the time both were filling their missionary assignments in California.
Then one day, back in Utah, Wray said he was driving along the freeway when a UHP car began pacing alongside. He looked over and saw Brumett wearing an infectious smile. "The look on his face was if to say `I made that goal, president, that we talked about in our final interview.' "
"Then he dropped back and pulled over a speeding motorist," Wray said. "But he still had that smile."
Even a biographical sketch Brumett provided to Wray before beginning his missionary tour indicated he wanted to be a police officer someday.
Brumett was afforded full police honors at the funeral. Outside the LDS church building in Lehi, uniformed police officers lined the sidewalks and covered the lawns as pallbearers carried the casket out.
Strains of "Amazing Grace" from a bagpipe prefaced a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps before officers folded the American flag that had draped Brumett's casket and presented it to Jennifer, Brumett's wife of 14 months.
A 30-motorcycle procession escorted the hearse back to Salt Lake City, past the spot where the officer had been fatally injured three days earlier. Brumett's body will be taken for burial to Roseville, Ill., near Danville where he was born.