An informational sign outside the Biddeford Police Department displays a memorial message for Sgt. Jacob Wolterbeek Friday afternoon. Wolterbeek was killed in a crash on the Piscataqua River Bridge early Thursday. Daniel Kool/ Portland Press Herald

Joshua Wright remembers sitting in the back of Jacob Wolterbeek’s cruiser as a teen.

He’d just gotten into a fight with drugs on him, a “big deal,” he said.

But the Biddeford police officer stopped for a moment. He told Wright that he was a smart kid, but going down a bad path. He should be making better choices, going to college, Wolterbeek told him.

Biddeford police officer Jake Wolterbeek delivers a citation in 2019 to a Pennsylvania man who was stopped for allegedly using a cellphone while driving. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

“He just had this fatherly talk with me,” Wright said.

Wolterbeek, a 41-year-old sergeant from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, died early Thursday on the Piscataqua River Bridge after crashing into the rear of a box truck that was stopped in traffic on Interstate 95. He was driving home at the end of his shift.

Law enforcement officers from across the state led a procession on Thursday to carry Wolterbeek’s body to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta, then to a funeral home in Arundel that afternoon.

On Friday, community members said they will remember Wolterbeek as a dedicated officer, husband and father to three young children. Even those who did not know Wolterbeek personally called him a familiar face downtown.

Wright said he’ll remember him as the “neighborhood dad” who educated him and his peers rather than escalating situations.

Wright, now 33 and living in Portland, said he only lived in Biddeford for three years but still brings up memories of the local police officer to his friends. In his early teens, Wright lived in one of the city’s low-income neighborhoods. He and his friends would break dance on the corner, paint graffiti, smoke cigarettes and sometimes get into fights. And Wolterbeek, who patrolled the neighborhood regularly on his bike, knew them all by name.

“To know that somebody cared made me feel as though I wasn’t just another hood kid or a street kid that was going to go down the same path as my father,” Wright said.

He said Wolterbeek would banter with him and the other kids in the neighborhood. He didn’t focus on discipline or see them “as a bunch of punks,” Wright said, but he would encourage them to follow their passions and stay out of trouble.

Wright ended up attending Southern Maine Community College. Inspired by Wolterbeek’s love of public service, Wright became a registered nurse and now teaches at Portland Youth Dance Company.

“For a male with power to take his time to be gentle with you, it kind of changes the way you look at the world,” he said. “He rewrote the way I learned how the world worked.”

A LOSS FELT WIDELY

Up and down Biddeford’s Main Street, shoppers and business owners said much of the community was mourning Wolterbeek, including those who did not know him personally but recognized his impact.

Delilah Poupore, executive director of Heart of Biddeford, said Wolterbeek frequently staffed the organization’s events and demonstrated a deep love for the community.

She noted the outpouring of support, especially on social media, from residents and those who worked with Wolterbeek since the announcement of his death.

“It is a little surprising, because there are mixed feelings about people in public service these days,” she said. “I think it is a testament to the kind of person that he was: being so personable, demonstrating that he cared. I can just think of a lot of situations where he made a human, personal connection with somebody instead of just carrying out the job as written.”

She said the town’s annual WinterFest seemed to be among Wolterbeek’s favorite celebrations, but he always had an “unbridled enthusiasm for things going well.”

At times, he came to her with ideas on ways to improve the next year’s festival, like enhancing the sledding hill.

“Sometimes his enthusiasm was over the top,” Poupore said. “He’s there as a police officer at WinterFest, but what he’s worrying about is like ‘How can we get another hour of sledding out of that hill so the kids get to keep sledding?’ ”

Jiamei Liu, who works at Yummy House, a restaurant across the street from the police station, said Wolterbeek would stop in for takeout every couple of weeks.

Liu said she recognized Wolterbeek from parades and fairs in town, where she said he paid close attention to whether attendees were enjoying themselves. She described Wolterbeek as quiet but kind when he picked up his orders.

“He’s the only sergeant who’d come here,” Liu said Friday afternoon. “I’ll miss him so much.”

Biddeford Mayor Martin Grohman said Tuesday’s City Council meeting will feature a tribute to Wolterbeek. He described the officer as a compassionate role model for the city.

Charlie Black II, the president of the nonprofit Trooper Black Foundation, said all donations received this month will be sent to Wolterbeek’s family. His organization financially supports local first responders in need, as well as their families, like when they are injured or killed.

Black said Wolterbeek’s story hits home for him, as someone who grew up with a single mother after his father, Trooper Black, was killed in the line of duty in 1964.

He’s heard from friends in law enforcement that Wolterbeek was a kind, giving officer. He sympathizes with Wolterbeek’s family,

“These first responders are there for the rest of us when we’re going through hard times and we felt like there needed to be an organization out there to help them out when they’re going through hard times,” Black said.

Staff at the Biddeford Police Department on Friday afternoon said they were still processing the sergeant’s death and were not ready to speak about him, but they called Wolterbeek an “amazing” officer and colleague.

Outside the department, a pair of flags flew at half-mast. Next to them, an electronic message board had traded its usual time and temperature for a message of mourning.

“In Loving Memory Sgt. Jacob Wolterbeek,” the screen flashed. “End of Watch 12/12/24.”