Georgia fireplace chief fatally shot in Alabama whereas helping driver after deer collision

CHAMBERS COUNTY: A person fatally shot a fireplace battalion chief and wounded the motive force of a automotive that hit a deer in rural Alabama, authorities stated.

The Coweta County fireplace division is mourning the loss of life of James Bartholomew Cauthen, 54, remembering him as “an incredible, hard-working man with a mild soul,” who labored for the division for greater than 24 years, based on a Fb submit.

Cauthen was serving to a pair whose automotive had struck a deer Sunday afternoon in Chambers County, Alabama, simply west of the border with Georgia, the sheriff division wrote in a Fb submit. Cauthen, the battalion chief for the Coweta County Hearth Rescue in Georgia, walked with the motive force to a close-by property to ask for assist as a result of the couple couldn’t get service, Chambers County Sheriff Division Chief Deputy Mike Parrish informed WRBL.

Authorities stated the property proprietor, William Randall Franklin, 34, opened fireplace on Cauthen and the motive force, killing Cauthen and wounding the motive force. The motive force was armed and returned fireplace, wounding Franklin. Regulation enforcement then arrived and took the motive force and Franklin to a hospital. The motive force’s spouse by no means left the automotive and was unhurt through the shootout.

Court docket information in Georgia present that Franklin was arrested on Monday afternoon on a cost of being a fugitive from justice in Alabama. He’s presently detained within the Muscogee County Jail. The Chamber’s County sheriff’s division stated that there’s a homicide warrant for Franklin in Alabama.

There was no legal professional listed to talk on Franklin’s behalf on Tuesday afternoon.

“Positively an eerie sense of vacancy within the bay this morning,” Coweta County fireplace fighter Cody Darracott wrote on Fb on Monday. The submit described Cauthen because the “epitome of a Godly, selfless, hardworking man.”