April 02--Hundreds of police officers crowded the streets outside a southwest suburban church today to say farewell to Illinois State Trooper James Sauter, killed in a fiery crash last week on the Tri-State Tollway.
Following a 90-minute service at a packed Moraine Valley Church in Palos Heights, uniformed officers from dozens of jurisdictions filed out, taking more than 10 minutes to form phalanxes in the parking lot.
As Sauter's casket was carried, the officers lined up row on row, in columns of navy blue of municipal police, the brown of county officers and the green of state police dress. Bagpipes played "Amazing Grace."
During a 21-gun salute, there was a flyover by a single-engine plane and a helicopter, likely in honor of Sauter's service in the state police air operations.
The funeral procession then turned out onto 127th Street and headed eas, beneath a giant American flag hanging across the road. The procession, mostly marked and unmarked police vehicles, stretched for blocks as southbound lanes of Interstate 294 were cleared from the Cicero Avenue exit to the Bishop Ford Freeway.
On Monday, troopers in full dress uniform had greeted mourners for a wake at Moraine Valley Church in Palos Heights. The parking lot was packed, and nearly half the cars were marked or unmarked vehicles from about a dozen police agencies.
Outside the church, Trooper Raymond Kurut said he met Sauter when the two entered the police academy four years ago, recalling his classmate's enthusiasm for the dangerous work of patrolling the highways.
"We have a term in the state police for patrol, called being a 'road dog,'" Kurut said. "Jim loved being a road dog out here more than anything else."
Sauter, a pilot, liked patrol so much that he asked to be taken out of state police air operations and was transferred back to the road shortly before the crash, state police said.
About 11 p.m. Thursday, he was in his police cruiser parked on Interstate 294 south of Willow Road in Glenview when a semitrailer truck hit the car from behind.
Both vehicles burst into flames, and Sauter was pronounced dead at the scene. He was 28.
The driver of the semi was ticketed for improper lane usage, authorities said. His name has not been released because of the pending investigation, state police spokeswoman Monique Bond said.
Sauter, a trooper since 2008, is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and his parents. He lived in Vernon Hills but grew up in Chicago Ridge and attended Richards High School.
Sauter was still a cadet when he saved the life of a woman badly injured in a motorcycle crash on Interstate 80. He saw that no emergency vehicles had arrived, so he parked his car, grabbed a medical kit and ran across several lanes of traffic to reach the woman, Kurut said.
Sauter was able to clear the woman's airway, which was blocked with blood. She was airlifted to a hospital and survived.
"I talked to Jim that night," Kurut said. "Jim was just overjoyed he had the training and the tools and the ability to be in the right place at the right time."
Sauter was awarded the state police's Lifesaving Medal in October 2008.
Caryn Tatelli hardly knew Sauter -- Sauter's wife was a baby sitter for Tatelli's three children several years ago -- but she said the muscular, warmhearted trooper made an impression. When Sauter and his future wife, Elizabeth, were dating, Tatelli invited the couple to join her family at a water park in the Wisconsin Dells.
Her children, 3-year-old twins and a 7-year-old at the time, still remember Sauter.
"They all wanted to go down the water slides with (Sauter)," she said. "They still remember that feeling of being safe."
The funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Moraine Valley Church, 6300 W. 127th St.
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