The Utah County Sheriff’s deputy who was shot and killed by a driver during a routine traffic stop last week grew up in American Fork.

Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Cory Wride, 44, spent most of his childhood in American Fork until he graduated from American Fork High School. Cory was born in San Juan County, Sept. 28, 1969, the oldest child of D. Blake and Kathy Nielsen Wride. At age two, his family moved to American Fork, where he is remembered as someone with quiet, kind nature, a quick wit and a special love for animals, never wanting the spotlight and always putting the welfare of others above himself. Cory was actively involved in FFA during high school and became an Eagle Scout. He graduated from American Fork High School in 1987.

After high school he enlisted in the Utah Army National Guard in 1988, serving honorably for 12 years and achieving the rank of sergeant. Cory accepted a position with the Utah County Sheriffs Department in 1994. He married Nannette Williams, on Dec. 23, 1995. And they were later sealed in the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

A veteran of 19 years, he was killed after a traffic stop on SR-73 in Eagle Mountain on Jan. 30, in an incident that Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy would later call “an evil run through Utah County” and a “horrific set of events” that left one Utah County Sheriff deputy dead and another critically wounded.

Cory left behind a wife, four boys and one daughter. Among the thousands attending his interment yesterday, nearly every Utah County law enforcement agency and all Utah County cities were represented. 

His parents still reside in American Fork.