Slices of life in America

(CNN)An Arizona trooper who had been shot and was being beaten by a man with a pistol was saved Thursday by a motorist who killed his attacker, authorities said.

The man who came upon the scene warned the suspect to stop striking the officer, but the assailant continued, said Capt. Damon Cecil, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
The good Samaritan got a gun from his car and shot the suspect, who died at the scene.
The trooper, a 27-year veteran, was shot in the chest and shoulder. He is in serious and stable condition, Cecil said.
The trooper was identified Friday as Ed Andersson.

Col. Frank Milstead @frank_milstead
Thanks for the thoughts and prayers this morning for our Trooper that was shot. Looks like he will be okay after some recovery @Arizona_DPS
6:26 AM - 12 Jan 2017

Col. Frank Milstead, director of the Public Safety Department, said he would like to thank the man who stepped in. "I don't know that my trooper would be alive today without his assistance," he said, according to CNN affiliate KNXV-TV in Phoenix.
Unusual circumstances
Public safety spokesman Bart Graves said the incident began with the trooper responding to report of shots fired from the median of an unlit, rural section of Interstate 10 near Tonopah. Andersson came across a vehicle that had rolled over and got out to investigate. While Andersson was setting flares, the suspect shot him.
It was not clear where the suspect was when the officer pulled up.
Milstead said at some point the suspect started beating Andersson, who was unable to use his right arm to defend himself. That's when the motorist pulled up and opened fire on the suspect.
"It's fairly rare" that citizens who come to the aid of law enforcement officers use deadly force, Cecil said.
Another motorist who stopped used the trooper's portable radio to call in the shooting.
The conversation between that driver and the dispatcher was very businesslike, Cecil said.
"Hello. Officer down, officer down outside Tonopah. Come in, please," the man says, according to audio archived on Broadcastify, which streams radio communications between emergency responders. "He's in real bad shape. Please send air support, helicopter, please."
He tells the dispatcher there are two other people who are down in an "unknown condition."
Cecil praised the motorists who stopped to help, saying, "They were calm, determined."
A woman who was ejected from the vehicle died at a hospital, authorities said.
Authorities didn't release the names of the people involved in the incident, which occurred after 4 a.m. near mile marker 89, west of Tonopah. That city is about 50 miles west of Phoenix.

The Main Streets are active, with entrepreneur-owned small businesses ranging from artsy to cafes to tech and legal services. New Holiday decorations on lamp posts. Manufacturing plants with filled-to-capacity parking lots, in clean, new and refurbished buildings.

Rural Americans, in general, are in a much healthier environment. They have their problems,but , again, in general, they and their families live a bit closer to nature-- and this counts for much more than is typically acknowledged. Those Americans living closer to nature will be healthier going forward, those living in large cities much less so-- urban dwellers will be much worse off even than they have been traditionally.

When the Stettner Brothers got on motorcycles in Chicago and rolled across the prairies .
Motivated by black n white photos in newsprint of the thing out there with the "big snowy ledges 1/2 way" ( up It )

Longs Peak was notable enough (even in 1927) that the Stettner brothers were aware of the already-established routes on its East Face.
They packed their felt-soled German Klettershoes, their pitons, carabiners and rode to Colorado on a pair of Indian motorcycles. The trip alone was adventuresome enough to secure a place in the lore of climbing — it took five days of rough riding on dirt roads just to reach the mountains. They arrived bought a hemp rope, climbed the hardest line yet climbed
And went back to the the city.
Those where factory workin' city boys.