CANFIELD — In honor of the life and service of Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Nicholas P. Cayton, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has ordered flags of the United States and the state of Ohio to be flown at half-staff at all public buildings and grounds throughout Mahoning County, the Ohio Statehouse, the Vern Riffe Center and the Rhodes State Office Tower now through sunset on the day of the trooper’s funeral.

All other public buildings and grounds throughout the state may fly the flags at half-staff at their discretion for the same time period.

Also in memory of Cayton, White House Fruit Farm’s fall festival today will include a benefit in memory of the fallen trooper.

Musician Chase Welch will be performing from noon to 3 p.m., with all tips going directly to Cayton’s family, a White House worker said.

Cayton, 40, responded to state Route 11 northbound in Canfield on Thursday afternoon after a report of a disabled 2024 Kenworth semi tractor-trailer in the right lane, and upon making contact with the driver, Nelson De Jesus Herrera Vasquez, 65, of Florida, Cayton determined that the Kenworth had struck an item in the roadway.

According to the OSHP, Cayton was sitting in his cruiser with its emergency overhead lights activated when a 2007 Mack Granite, driven by Ryan Rach, 35, of Canfield, traveling northbound, crashed into the back of his cruiser.

The cruiser traveled forward into the back of Vasquez’s disabled tractor-trailer, also striking Vasquez, who was standing outside of his vehicle.

Cayton was pronounced dead at the scene, while Vasquez was life-flighted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

A long procession of OSHP and other law enforcement vehicles carried Cayton’s body from Canfield to the Cuyahoga Medical Examiner’s Office in Cleveland on Thursday night.

On Friday, first responders from across the Mahoning Valley including troopers from the Canfield and Lisbon Ohio State Highway Patrol posts; the Salem, Columbiana, Canfield, Beaver, Goshen and Perry Township police departments; the Perry Township Fire Department; and the Cardinal Joint Fire District accompanied one of their own in a procession that escorted the the body of Cayton from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office to Arbaugh-Pearce-Greenisen Funeral Home in Salem Friday.

The procession included more than 25 vehicles and passed by the highway patrol barracks in Canfield and under an American flag hung from the Salem Fire Department’s ladder truck on East State Street en route to the funeral home.

Cayton was transported by the Cardinal Joint Fire District’s ambulance and accompanied by his family in adjacent vehicles.

Arbaugh-Pearce-Greenisen Funeral Home Director Bob Greenisen said that the time and location of services were still pending Friday evening but would be announced once finalized.

The Thursday crash remains under investigation