Investigators said a trooper stopped a Lincoln Town Car near a service station on State Route 7 near Spanaway to determine whether the driver was intoxicated. Authorities said the driver got out of the car and was being put through a field sobriety test when a scuffle developed.

According to witnesses, the man fired a handgun, then fled from the scene as the trooper fired her service weapon and called for help on her radio.

Two motorists helped the 47-year-old trooper, bandaging her wounds.

"’Please don't let me die,’ is what she kept saying. ‘Don't let me die',” said Laurie Rowsey, who witnessed the shooting.

Police said the man drove north on State Route 7 to 176th Street East in Spanaway after shooting the trooper in the leg and arm. The man abandoned his Lincoln Town Car at an elementary school.

Pierce County deputies moved in and confronted the man as he tried to get into a van he had a friend bring to him.

Video: Shootout Wounds Trooper, Leaves 1 Dead

"He reached in and pulled out a handgun. When he pulled out the handgun, our deputies fired upon him. Some of the rounds struck him. He went down and died from those wounds," said Pierce county Sheriff's Department spokesman Ed Troyer.

The motorist was described as a 24-year-old Tacoma man. Police said he does not appear to have a criminal history.