JUNIATA COUNTY, Pa. — Linda Gray added a cross to the memorial she and her husband started over the weekend in memory of fallen Pennsylvania State Trooper Jacques Rougeau Jr.
Rougeau, 29, would have celebrated three years as a State Trooper on June 29.
“He was a wonderful person and he gave his life to save the rest of the people in this area," said Gray. "It was a really sad situation, when we found out it just broke our hearts.”
Trooper Rougeau was killed Saturday in a shootout with Brandon Stine, 38 of Thompsontown.
Stine was also killed by gunfire.
Earlier that day, Stine showed up at the Pennsylvania State Police Lewistown barracks and fired shots at patrol cars before fleeing.
A manhunt ensued. Police say Stine appeared to be playing “a game of cat and mouse” with authorities, setting them up for an ambush.
"There were phone calls, there were attempts to try and negotiate with him," said Lt. Colonel George Bivens, Pennsylvania State Police Deputy Commissioner of Operations. "But there were phone calls from him providing a location and then he wouldn't be there."
In a separate encounter with the gunman, Pennsylvania State Police Lieutenant James Wagner was shot and critically wounded.
“It only went on a few minutes but it seemed to go on forever and ever, with the shots," said Gray, who lives right near where the shootout between Stine and Trooper Rougeau happened. "It was almost like a war zone, simple as that.”
FOX43 spoke with a close family member of Stine on Monday.
She didn’t want to appear on camera or be identified, but tells us he had mental health issues and was suffering from psychosis.
In the weeks and months leading up to Saturday's incident, she says he wasn't sleeping and believed someone was attempting to poison him.
“He told me he tried to tell the cops he was being poisoned and they did nothing but I received a phone call [Saturday] morning that he shot two rounds into their building and [they asked me if] I knew where he was," she recounted. "I said Mifflintown and to be careful because he had mental health issues.”
“His last text to me before he died was that the government was trying to kill him and he just wanted to live," she continued.
She says her heart aches for the troopers involved and their families, as well as the entire community.
“I can’t imagine their loss and they were brave," she said. "I know I wouldn’t be able to do what they did, they were trying to protect the people of that town.”
Stine’s family has no idea what led him to do what he did on Saturday.
"He wasn't a bad person. He just needed help," the family member added.
She says she wishes they would have taken his problems more seriously.
“I wish I could have done more, I couldn’t talk sense into him, he didn’t believe me...Some people are painting him to be a horrible person and I understand people are hurting, but we are too.”
The Pennsylvania State Police now have the grim task ahead of planning a line of duty funeral for Trooper Rougeau.
A procession was held Monday morning to escort his body to a Lehigh Valley hospital for an autopsy.
Meanwhile, Lt. Wagner remains in critical condition at Hershey Medical Center.
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