When Hideout resident Patrick Hayes, 61, was fatally shot in a road rage incident, the shooting was initially deemed a homicide by Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office officials. After a 48-day investigation, police found the shooter, Greg Kyle DeBoer, 62, who admitted to using lethal force the night of the incident.
DeBoer claimed he pulled his .45 caliber Kimber 1911 out of self-defense, according to court documents.
Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby said there’s not enough evidence to charge DeBoer with homicide. Because DeBoer admitted to burying the gun he used to shoot Hayes, he faces an obstruction of justice charge, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Hayes’ friends and family, indignant, said it’s not enough.
Peter Kintner was a friend of Hayes for more than a decade. They met through Hayes’ partner, Sue Ann Kern, and became close over the years. Kintner, outraged that DeBoer is not facing any homicide charges, decided to take matters into his own hands. On Thursday, he started an online petition titled “Justice for Patrick Hayes.”
“It’s one thing to lose a close friend like that, but it’s another thing to lose somebody in that manner,” Kintner said. “I’m a gun owner, and if I were ever in a situation where I had to use deadly force, I would have stayed on the scene. I would have called the police and called an ambulance.”
Kintner said the fact that DeBoer left the scene after shooting Hayes, then later burying the gun, is “telling.” He referred to the surveillance footage recently released that shows the interaction between Hayes and DeBoer the night of the shooting, Sept. 25, 2024.
“It seems to me that the charges they want to charge DeBoer with basically amount to a slap on the wrist,” Kintner said.
There were more than 100 signatures on the petition within 24 hours of its launch. By Monday, there were more than 700 signatures.
“Everyone that’s signing this petition was impacted by Patrick, and we all think that the way they’re handling this case is not fair,” Hayes’ fiancée, Kern, said. “DeBoer needs to be held accountable for his actions.”
Kintner references a new state law in the petition that passed during the last legislative session. House Bill 30 enforced tougher penalties on deadly road rage incidents. The bill went into effect on July 1 — just one month after two deadly road rage cases in Utah and Davis counties.
The bill made amendments such as modifying the elements of aggravated assault to address the use of a motor vehicle and the requirement of the courts to collect data regarding road rage incidents.
“It is essential to uphold justice and the safety of our community, and to give credibility to the new Utah Law HB30,” the petition reads. “There is a strong belief in our community that Greg Kyle DeBoer has not been held fully accountable for his actions.”
After DeBoer fatally shot Hayes at around 11 p.m. on Sept. 25, no call was made to the police about the shooting until 12 hours later when a passerby saw Hayes lying on the ground. His car, a few feet from Hayes, was still idling with the right blinker flashing. Hayes died that night less than half a mile from his Hideout home.
Because no call by DeBoer was made, police were unaware of the shooter’s identity. Investigators later received a tip from a local, who said DeBoer used the ammunition forensic specialists uncovered — a .45 Winchester Black Talon round, which was popular until manufacturing ceased in 2000.
When DeBoer admitted to shooting Hayes and burying the gun, he also claimed self defense. Sheriff Rigby said that despite the discovery of “minor pieces of evidence,” the footage of the shooting complicated matters, and there is not enough evidence so far to charge DeBoer with homicide.
The footage shows Hayes, followed by DeBoer, arriving at the Ross Creek entrance of Jordanelle State Park. When Hayes exited his car, DeBoer apparently attempted to hit Hayes with his car twice. When Hayes regained his feet after falling, he started talking to DeBoer, using profanity and saying “You want to get out?” DeBoer then shot Hayes in the chest.
“If the shooter was in self defense, why did he follow Patrick to begin with? Why did he actually pull the trigger, why did he hide the gun?” One petition comment reads.
“Utah, being a law and order state, should stand by its law,” Kintner said, referring to H.B. 30. “If they want this sort of thing to stop, then this particular case is a landmark that shows that this does, in fact, need to be addressed. Patrick Hayes deserves that justice.”
Wasatch County Attorney McKay King, a prosecutor on the DeBoer case, was not available for comment by the time of publication.