State Trooper Fatally Shot In Head During Traffic Stop Monday In Western Michigan: Two Suspects Get In Shootout With Police, Leaving One Man Shot, Though No Charges Filed

State trooper fatally shot during a traffic stop in Western Michigan Monday after a motorist called 911 to report that a trooper had been shot in the head.

State police Lt. Chris McIntire said Trooper Paul Butterfield provided location and vehicle information to a dispatcher before he was fatally shot Monday evening in Mason County.

A man and a woman were taken into custody because they were in a vehicle that the state trooper described before he was fatally shot in the head.  Butterfield, 43, died while in the hospital during emergency surgery.

"What he did was perfect," McIntire said during a news conference at the state police's Rockford post. "You can't prepare for something like this. He did the right thing."

The man and woman were located 15 miles away at a gas station in Wellston around 8:30 p.m. Police exchanged gunfire with the suspects, and one suspect was shot. The man was taken to a hospital for non-life threatening injuries and both have not been charged, yet.

"We have a lot to do yet. We are trying to piece the investigation together," McIntire said. "We want to do it right."

Butterfield, who became a trooper in 1999, was a veteran of the U.S. Army. He was the son of a retired police officer and spent most of his time at a post in Manistee before he was transferred to Hart in Oceana County, 30 miles south of the shooting site, according to csmonitor.com.

"This senseless incident is a grim reminder that our brave public safety officers put their lives on the line every day when they go to work protecting Michiganders," Gov. Rick Snyder said in a statement, who ordered U.S. flags at state buildings be lowered to half-staff from Tuesday through Butterfield's funeral. "They are heroes."