(Newswire.net — January 13, 2017) — Armed civilian motorist shot and killed the attacker who ambushed an Arizona state trooper.
Russia Today reports the trooper was investigating a car crash on Interstate 10, west of Phoenix. He responded to a call about someone shooting at cars on I-10.
Director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Colonel Frank Milstead, told local media that the trooper, identified only as a 27-year veteran of the force, responded to a call that was received around 4:30am local time on Thursday morning.
When the trooper arrived at the scene, he found a car that had rolled over. Reportedly, an injured female passenger was inside the car. In order to secure the site, the trooper began to lay out flares. As he set the flare, he was ambushed and shot in the right shoulder.
The attacker jumped out of cover and charged the wounded trooper. As the attacker overpowered the trooper, he started slamming his head against the pavement.
At that moment, an unidentified motorist pulled over and saved the trooper in a bizarre turn of events. Reportedly, the “uninvolved hero motorist” approached the scene and asked the trooper if he needed help.
The trooper shouted: “Please help me!”, according to Milstead. The man then returned to his vehicle, and came back holding a personal weapon. The report says he ordered the suspect to stop, then shot him after the attacker refused to stop assaulting the officer. .
“I don’t know if my trooper would not be alive without his assistance,” Milstead told KPHO.
What remains bizarre is that the motorist didn’t recognize the situation on the spot but had to ask the bleeding trooper, whose head was being slammed into the pavement by the attacker, if he needed help.
Then he managed to return to his vehicle and approached back the scene with his weapon, all the while being totally ignored by the suspect killing the trooper.
Then, after the suspect ignored the warning to stop, he was shot. He died later of his wounds.
The woman who was injured in the car crash also died from her injuries, leaving the trooper and the armed Good Samaritan to describe what happened.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety has not released any names of the people involved, including the name of the armed citizen.