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.

James “Bart” Bartholomew Cauthen, 54, was helping the couple who had crashed their truck in front of a property he owns when a neighbor, William Randall Franklin, opened fire without reason, Chambers County Sheriff’s Office Chief Investigator Jeff Hinkle told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday.

The incident happened Sunday along County Road 267, just over the Alabama state line. The area is near U.S. 431 and “just about as rural as you can get,” Hinkle said.

But there is cellphone service in the area, the investigator clarified. Contrary to other reports, Cauthen and the driver, whose name was not released, did not approach Franklin’s property looking for help, Hinkle said. Cauthen had already called 911 from the road when Franklin approached the group, he said.

“They never went on (Franklin’s) property,” Hinkle said.

According to the detective, Franklin had allegedly already been shooting haphazardly from his house before approaching the group as they waited for deputies to arrive. Authorities did not know why or at what he’d been shooting.

“When he finally walked up to the road, Cauthen offered him the deer. He said, ‘Hey, do you want this deer?’ You know, because it had been hit with a car," Hinkle said. “At some point, the guy (Franklin) walked over to the truck, had words with the guy’s wife in the truck, then pulled the gun on the driver, and that’s where it all went downhill."

A tussle ensued over the gun, and the situation rapidly devolved into bloodshed.

“The fireman was just a bystander over there, and he was yelling to stop ... and the guy turns around and opens fire on him," Hinkle said.

The confrontation ended with Cauthen dead, Franklin injured and the driver shot in the arm.

Franklin and the driver were stable but flown to hospitals in Columbus and LaGrange, the sheriff’s office said. The driver’s wife was unhurt.

Cauthen, a 24-year veteran firefighter, was declared dead at the scene.

“Tonight, Coweta Fire Rescue is devastated to hear of the loss of Battalion Chief Bart Cauthen,” the fire department said in a statement hours later. “We lost one of our brothers, leaders, mentor and family to a senseless tragedy.”

Franklin faces a charge of murder in Alabama once he is released from Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital, the sheriff’s office said. Hinkle said his office had no previous run-ins with Franklin.

Cauthen’s body was escorted Thursday by a line of police and fire trucks and saluted by first responders who stood atop nearly every overpass on the roughly 50-mile drive to McKoon Funeral Home.

“It was an honor to be a part of picking you up and bringing you home, Chief,” one fireman said in a video of the procession posted to the department’s Facebook page.

“He was an amazing, hard-working man with a gentle soul,” Cauthen’s department said of him.

His funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Unity Baptist Church in Newnan, according to his obituary. Visitation is Monday from 5-7 p.m. at the same location.