A Georgia fire chief was shot to death in Alabama after stopping to help a couple whose car struck a deer, officials said. James Bartholomew Cauthen was the battalion chief for the Coweta County Fire Department.

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

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.