John Jefferson
Inset: Road rage shooting victim Patrick Hayes (GoFundMe). Background: Memorial for Patrick Hayes set up at Jordanelle State Park in Utah where he was killed (KSL/YouTube).
A motorist in Utah shot and killed another driver during a road-rage dispute, using a .45-caliber handgun and rare hollow-point ammo, which he later stashed and buried after the incident, along with not calling cops — despite claiming that he acted in self-defense, according to police. Authorities in Wasatch County apparently believe the man, charging him with obstruction of justice this week and nothing related to the actual killing, to the shock of the victim’s family.
“I can understand self-defense in the sense of protecting yourself, but that kind of goes out the window, in my opinion, when you follow somebody,” said Christian Hayes, son of victim Patrick Hayes, 61, in an interview published by local NBC affiliate KSL on Christmas Day.
“The hardest thing is he’s not coming back,” Christian said. “Like, no matter what happens, my dad’s gone — that’s kind of the fact of everything, and that’s terrible.”
Patrick Hayes, described by his son and a family GoFundMe page as a “larger than life” father, small businessman and former NCAA All-American swimmer and water polo player, was allegedly killed by Greg Kyle DeBoer, 62, at Jordanelle State Park on Sept. 25, according to the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office.
It was a Wednesday night and Patrick Hayes was allegedly followed to the park by DeBoer, who confessed to the killing, after an apparent road rage incident between the two of them. Their vehicles were caught on surveillance video entering the park. Police say that once there, Hayes got out of his vehicle and “aggressively” approached DeBoer’s car with a metal baton and pocketknife in hand, prompting DeBoer — who was armed with a Kimber 1911 handgun loaded with Winchester Black Talon ammo — to open fire, according to officials.
“On November 13, 2024, investigators detained Greg DeBoer and questioned him about the shooting of Patrick Hayes,” the probable cause affidavit says, according to Salt Lake City CBS affiliate KUTV. “Greg DeBoer admitted to shooting Patrick Hayes during a road-rage incident but claimed he acted in self defense. Greg DeBoer admitted to shooting Patrick Hayes with his .45 caliber Kimber 1911 and admitted to burying the gun near his house sometime after the shooting.”
It was during the questioning of DeBoer that a search warrant was served at his house and his Kimber 1911 was discovered behind his home in Heber City, police said. The gun was allegedly “contained in a case” along with the .45 caliber Black Talon ammunition. Police were ultimately able to tie the shooting to DeBoer through Hayes’ autopsy, which turned up a single .45 caliber Black Talon bullet.
“A bullet that has been out of production for at least 20 years and is therefore uncommon,” DeBoer’s affidavit says.
After the shooting, police said investigators were “analyzing evidence” as to whether Hayes was attempting to enter DeBoer’s vehicle or was walking away at the time he was killed. DeBoer was taken into custody on Dec. 23 and charged with obstruction of justice in a capital felony investigation for his alleged stashing of the gun and bullets used to kill Hayes.
While it’s a second-degree felony and not a murder charge, Patrick Hayes’ family was happy to see DeBoer at least get arrested.
“At least, you know, this guy’s hopefully going to pay for what he did,” Christian said, noting how Christmas Eve “was our day” following the arrest of DeBoer. “In a weird way … it’s almost poetic. This guy was caught yesterday, you know, and so he’s not at home for Christmas Eve.”
The Hayes family is convinced that DeBoer killed Patrick in cold blood and should be punished for doing so.
“We do not believe that this was self-defense from the man who killed Patrick as it has been alluded to by the perpetrator in his statements to police,” the family said in a November statement. “We believe in our hearts that this was an unjustified homicide, and we hope that the evidence and investigation proves that.”
Christian Hayes told KSL this week that the family is still struggling to deal with his father’s death, especially with the holidays rolling around.
“He’s left a really big kind of hole in our hearts,” Christian said.
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