A resident in the area opened fire on Battalion Chief Bart Cauthen and the driver as they walked up his driveway for help.

We lost one of our brothers, leaders, mentor, and family to a senseless tragedy,” Cauthen's colleagues wrote in a Facebook post.

In Chambers County, Alabama, a Georgia county fire chief, James Bartholomew Cauthen, was fatally shot after attempting to assist a couple who had struck a deer while traveling. WXIA's Cody Alcorn reports.

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.

James Cauthen, a 54-year-old fire chief with Coweta County Fire in Georgia, was shot and killed while helping drivers who hit a deer in Alabama.

A Georgia fire chief was shot dead after stopping to help motorists who had hit a deer in Alabama. A man who lived nearby now faces murder charges.

A fire battalion chief from Georgia was killed in a roadside shooting that injured two other people in Chambers County on Sunday night, the sheriff’s office said. “We lost one of our brothers, leaders, mentor, and family to a senseless tragedy,” the Coweta County Fire Rescue Department posted on Facebook last night.

A Georgia fire chief was shot to death in Alabama after stopping to help a couple whose car struck a deer, officials said.

A fire chief died in Alabama ... scene," the Chambers County Sheriff's Office said. "The deceased victim is identified as James Bartholomew Cauthen, 54 years of age from Moreland, Georgia ...

Authorities say murder charges have been issued for a man accused of fatally shooting a Georgia fire chief in rural Alabama.

On Tuesday, friends, family and the community at large will say goodbye to a Coweta County fire official who was shot and killed in Alabama last week.

A Coweta County fire battalion chief, who was shot and killed recently in Alabama while trying to help a couple who‘d hit a deer with their vehicle, was brought back to Georgia on Thursday for his funeral next week.