Utah barbershop is helping to support fallen officer’s family and community

SPANISH FORK — Right along the main street in Spanish Fork, there is a very busy hair-cutting business. They call it The Fellas Barber Shop, and on Tuesday, the mood had changed.

“It’s terrible that something like that has to happen,” said barber Liz Papa. “I was shocked.”

Papa is talking about what happened in the small town of Santaquin, just a short distance south of the barbershop. The community is mourning the loss of Sgt. Bill Hooser, who police say was intentionally hit and killed by a semi-truck early Sunday morning.

“The whole thing is just like super sad, super hard,” said one barber to a customer.

That’s why the owners wanted to do something to help. Through Sunday night, they are offering free haircuts to all law enforcement officers. The owners said 100% of the money those officers would have spent on a haircut would be donated to Hooser’s family.

Deputy Bryce Penrod with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office told KSL TV that’s why he came here to get a haircut.

“My wife saw this on Instagram. She usually cuts my hair, and she’s like, I’m signing you up for this. I was like OK. I’ve never been here before,” Penrod said. “The feeling of love from Utah, it’s unbelievable. It restored hope that the community is here for us and we’re here for them.”

Penrod is on the SWAT team and was called out Sunday morning when Hooser was hit and killed.

“We got a page saying, ‘Officer down, bring the armor.’ Just threw my gear on. Doesn’t matter where you are from or what city, we just went to where looking for the (suspect),” he said.

Provo police officer Nick Byrd also showed up for a free haircut, and he was grateful that the money he would have spent would be donated to Hooser’s family.

“It’s super cool to see it. Makes me as an officer feel safe. Feel loved, feel like I have people behind me,” Byrd said.

“We always want to give back to our hero community as much as possible even if it is a small difference we can make we want to do it,” said Ciara Southward, the COO of The Fellas Barber Shop. “It’s sombering, we’ve seen the community pull together like we’ve never seen before.”

In the town of Payson, just minutes away from Santaquin, the general manager of Costa Vida and his team are busy making 70 burritos to feed Santaquin police, city workers and other police agencies in town helping out.

“I think the community is all about being and acting like one,” said Jake McKervey. “You hear about this stuff all the time on the news and you never think it’s going to happen so close to home. Food always kind of always brought people together so I just felt like where all this happened and all these horrible things at least we can try and bring people back together.”

Another community member told @TVDanRascon that Hooser’s death “breaks his heart” but hopes the “community become stronger.” pic.twitter.com/Bg8ck3sCJe

— KSL 5 TV (@KSL5TV) May 6, 2024