A fire chief from Georgia, 54-year-old James Bartholomew Cauthen, was shot and killed in Alabama while attempting to assist two people who had hit a deer on the road. Cauthen served as a battalion chief with Coweta County Fire. When officials arrived at the scene in Lafayette, they discovered him and the two other people with gunshot wounds, per USA TODAY. 

Mike Parrish, the Chambers County Chief Deputy informed WTVM,

“A deer wreck…you pull up and three people are shot – it just don’t make sense any way you look at it… We just really didn’t know what happened. It was just bizarre.”

The fire chief succumbed to his injuries while the other two people were transported to

“LaGrange and Columbus trauma centers.” 

Officials have issued arrest warrants for murder for William Randall Franklin, an Alabama man who lived near the scene of the shooting and traffic incident.

The sheriff’s office stated that Franklin, who was also hurt in the shootout, would be apprehended after leaving the hospital. Reports say he was discharged on Monday and later apprehended by the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office. Franklin is waiting to be taken to Chambers County. Investigators say he fired at Cauthen and the two people who hit the deer.

Additional details regarding the incident has yet to be released.