The American flag that was draped over the casket of Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Nicholas P. Cayton is folded and presented to his family during a public memorial service Wednesday afternoon at Youngstown State University’s Beeghly Center. Cayton was killed Oct. 16 after his cruiser was struck from behind by a semi on Ohio 11 in Canfield while he was assisting another truck driver. (Photo by R. Michael Semple, Special to the Times)

YOUNGSTOWN — About 600 law enforcement officers lined Armed Forces Boulevard near the Beeghly Center at Youngstown State University in order to salute the coffin of Ohio STate Highway Patrol Trooper Nicholas Cayton as it passed by Wednesday.

Cayton, 40, was killed Oct. 16 when his cruiser with flashing lights was hit from behind by a truck on Ohio 11 in Canfield while the trooper was assisting another truck driver.

The public celebration of life Wednesday afternoon not only included the playing of “Taps,” a flyover and folding and presentation of the U.S. flag, it featured remarks by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and a representative from the Ohio Army National Guard military police company with which Cayton served in Afghanistan in 2013.

Pastor Duane Jesse of Zion Lutheran Church in Youngstown where the Cayton family worships, provided some insight into how Cayton’s service grew into a public event.

“Initially, (Cayton’s wife) Lynsey approached me about presiding at a small, intimate service with family and friends. That was 600 people,” he said. “Then I was asked to preside at this public ceremony, about which she warned me that hundreds might attend. And I told her that as part of the community, we need that time, too.”

Hundreds of police officers and state patrol personnel from as far away as Louisiana filled Youngstown State University’s Beeghly Center for Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Nicholas P. Cayton’s public memorial service on Wednesday. (Photo by R. Michael Semple, Special to the Times)

It appears that about 1,000 people were in attendance.

Jesse cited from the Gospel of John: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has a greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Jesse said “Love is more than a feeling. It’s a choice, a daily commitment to serve, to stand for what is right. That is the kind of love Nick gave. He loved his family, his life Lynsey, his children, Turner and Romy with every breath of his body. He loved his parents, his sisters, friends, his community, grandma and mom.”

He said Cayton “loved coaching football, making people laugh, playing the bagpipes, being DJ Nick. But the truest reflection of his love was in the way he served, whether deployed overseas or patrolling Ohio’s highways, Nick’s heart was centered on helping others.”

Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson said Cayton was “a great man,” and “one of the characteristics of great men is that they are willing to put themselves in harm’s way to protect others.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine gives remarks at the public memorial service for Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Nicholas P. Cayton, who was killed Oct. 16 after his cruiser was struck from behind by a semi on Ohio 11 in Canfield while he was assisting another truck driver. (Photo by R. Michael Semple, Special to the Times)

Wilson said there are people alive today who would not have been without Cayton’s service.

“I promise you that during his career, he took reckless and dangerous people off the street before they hurt or killed others,” he said.

Col. Charles Jones, Ohio State Highway Patrol superintendent, shared his prepared remarks and answered questions before the service.

He called Cayton “a devoted public servant, a courageous military veteran and a loving husband and father. His death in the line of duty is a profound tragedy that touches every member of the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the broader law enforcement community.

“The outpouring of support from law enforcement agencies across Ohio and the nation has been extraordinary. Their presence here today is a powerful reminder that we are never alone in our grief or in our mission. The Ohio State Highway Patrol’s core value of family is more than a word. It’s a promise,” he said.

The procession from Youngstown State University to Interstate 680 makes its way up Fifth Avenue following a public memorial service for Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Nicholas P. Cayton, who was killed Oct. 16 after his cruiser was struck from behind by a semi on Ohio 11 in Canfield while he was assisting another truck driver. (Photo by R. Michael Semple, Special to the Times)

Asked by reporters if there is a lesson to be learned by Cayton’s death, Jones pointed to state law requiring motorists to move over or slow down when approaching vehicles pulled over to the side of the road.

“I would say the lesson is to respect our public safety vehicles that are pulled off the side of the road,” he said. “If you can’t move over, then slow down. That’s what the law is designed for, and that would be my plea for everyone, all the motoring public, slow down and move over.”

When the outdoor portion of the service was over, roads near the university filled with police vehicles heading back home. In-person classes were held online during the service.

DeWine talked about Cayton’s overseas service in the Ohio National Guard, sharing how a fellow guardsman said Cayton “not only maintained a positive outlook” in difficult situations, he “made people laugh. His humor was infectious, if not at times irreverent.

“Often Nick just made the tough times bearable,” the guardsman said of Cayton. “He always, always had your back” and was “so reliable.”

Cayton was 2004 graduate of Carrollton High School, where he excelled in football, basketball, and baseball, according to his obituary. He and his wife had one son and one daughter.

Cayton joined the Ohio Army National Guard in 2007 while attending Youngstown State. He was deployed twice overseas, first in 2008 to Iraq with the 583rd Military Police Company and then in 2013 to Afghanistan with the 838th Military Police Company before finishing his service as a staff sergeant in 2014.

In 2010, he completed YSU’s Police Academy and later earned his criminal justice degree.

He became a Highway Patrol trooper in 2012, working first at the Lisbon post, and then transferring to Canfield. He was named Trooper of the Year for his outstanding service in 2022.

He enjoyed coaching for the Canfield Little Cardinals football team and spent many years playing the bagpipes with the Steel Valley Pipes and Drums and for the patrol.

Cayton responded to Ohio 11 northbound in Canfield after a report of a disabled 2024 semi tractor-trailer in the right lane. Upon making contact with the driver, Nelson De Jesus Herrera Vasquez, 65, of Florida, Cayton determined that the Kenworth had struck an item in the road.

According to the patrol, Cayton was sitting in his cruiser with its emergency overhead lights activated when a 2007 Mack Granite, driven by Ryan Rach, 35, of Canfield, traveling north, crashed into the back of his cruiser.

The cruiser traveled forward into the back of Vasquez’s disabled tractor-trailer, also striking Vasquez, who was standing outside of his vehicle.

Patrol officials said Wednesday that the crash remains under investigation. No charges appear to have been filed against Rach.

Brent Tharp, who grew up with Cayton in the Carrollton area, said he was amazed at the range of things his friend could do such as learning how to play the guitar and violin, and skateboard.

“Nick continued doing those things and many other things all throughout high school, and he excelled at all of them, rollerblading, ice skating, snowboarding, wave boarding and water skiing. He was phenomenal,” he said.

“It’s because of these activities Nick accumulated numerous friends from all walks of life,” he said. “Nick could walk off of the football field and be the most popular person there, then travel to another place and be the most popular skater kid there, and be the lead guitarist that night at a concert and be the most popular person there,” he said.