CHAMBERS COUNTY, Ala.—A man fatally shot a fire battalion chief and wounded the driver of a car that hit a deer in rural Alabama, authorities said.
The Coweta County fire department is mourning the death of James Bartholomew Cauthen, 54, remembering him as “an amazing, hard-working man with a gentle soul,” who worked for the department for more than 24 years, according to a Facebook post.
Cauthen was helping a couple whose car had struck a deer Sunday afternoon in Chambers County, Alabama, just west of the border with Georgia, the sheriff department wrote in a Facebook post. Cauthen, the battalion chief for the Coweta County Fire Rescue in Georgia, walked with the driver to a nearby property to ask for help because the couple couldn’t get service, Chambers County Sheriff Department Chief Deputy Mike Parrish told WBLR….