North Salt Lake officer's funeral set for Friday

North Salt Lake police are preparing to say farewell to a fallen officer.

Funeral services are planned this Friday for officer Charlie Skinner, who died after a car crash on wet roads last week in connection with a police pursuit of stolen car. The crash left him with a severe brain injury and his family decided late last week to take him off life support.

"It's hard," North Salt Lake Police Sgt. Mitch Gwilliam said Monday. "It's a small department."

Skinner, 30, was a relatively new officer at the North Salt Lake Police Department. His wife had just given birth three weeks earlier to twins — a boy and a girl.

Salt Lake police detective Brandee Casias remembered Skinner as having a shy personality.

"He was quiet until he needed to not be quiet," Casias said.

Casias and Skinner went through police academy together, along with 33 other recruits. After a 21-week course, the recruits became like second family members to each other, she said.

"He told me several times he was meant to be a police officer," Casias said. "He went forward with these goals. He fought for them and got what he wanted. He was a great person. We still consider him part of our family here at Salt Lake P.D."

Skinner went to the smaller North Salt Lake Police Department over Salt Lake City, in part because his father-in-law was a sergeant with neighboring Bountiful's department, she said.

The chase that resulted in the injuries that took Skinner's life began Nov. 3 when a Bountiful police officer on patrol spotted a stolen car and tried to pull it over. The driver sped away on I-15.

Police from North Salt Lake, Woods Cross and other agencies joined in. When the chase neared 2300 South and U.S. 89 in Bountiful, police said, Skinner lost control of his car on the wet roads and slammed into the concrete base of a sign.

Police arrested 30-year-old William Fisher after the car being chased rolled near 900 West and I-15 in Salt Lake City, police said. He is in the custody of the Utah Department of Corrections for a probation violation.

With Skinner's death, questions have been raised about whether a homicide charge could be pursued against Fisher. The officer died in the line of duty, though it remains unclear the extent of his involvement to the pursuit itself.