Editor’s note: This article has been updated to specify where the victim was employed as a fire chief.

(WRBL) – A fire chief was shot and killed in Alabama on Sunday while helping a stranded couple who struck a deer with their car in Chambers County.

James Bartholomew Cauthen, a fire chief with Georgia’s Coweta County Fire Rescue, had stopped to assist the couple sometime before 5 p.m. on County Road 267, according to officials. Investigators told Nexstar’s WRBL that Cauthen and the driver then approached the home of William Randall Franklin, 33, for help, at which point Franklin allegedly opened fire on them without warning.

Investigators say the driver, who was armed, returned fire on the suspect. All three men were injured in what the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office called a “shootout”; Cauthen, 54, succumbed to his injuries before deputies responded to the scene.

Investigators have not yet determined what prompted the suspect to fire on Cauthen and the driver.

“Cauthen has been with our department for more than 24 years,” his colleagues at Coweta County Fire Rescue wrote on Facebook. “He was an amazing, hard-working man with a gentle soul.”

Chambers County Chief Deputy Mike Parrish called the incident one of the most heartbreaking and bizarre cases in his more than 30 years of service.

As explained by Parrish, Cauthen owned or maintained a property near the scene of the incident. Investigators believe Cauthen was leaving the property when he noticed the vehicle which struck the deer, and stopped to offer help.

Parrish said the fire chief and the driver, unable to call for help due to poor cell phone service in the remote area, decided to walk to the nearby home to ask for assistance. That’s when Franklin allegedly opened fire.

Investigators believe Cauthen, after being struck, attempted to cross the street but collapsed in a ditch and succumbed to his injuries before deputies arrived. The driver, while injured, is expected to recover. The driver’s wife was uninjured, having never left the car.

Franklin is also expected to survive and will face a murder charge upon his release from Piedmont Medical Center, official say.

The shooting remains under investigation.

“We lost one of our brothers, leaders, mentor, and family to a senseless tragedy,” Cauthen’s colleagues wrote in a separate Facebook post. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the Cauthen family as they navigate this difficult time.”