“You know how when people have trauma they either become so thankful about everything about life or else they become bitter against life? Brent went to the bitter side,” she said. “That was a very life-changing thing for him. What happened after that, I honestly can’t tell you.”

DeLaittre, who was a homegrown boy from Three Forks, was sworn in as a trooper in November 2008. He was initially stationed in Chinook and then transferred to Bozeman in April 2010, Department of Justice spokeswoman Judy Beck said.

According to the troopers association, DeLaittre “chose the patrol because he wanted to work for the most respected law enforcement agency in Montana.”

Three Forks Mayor Gene Townsend told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle Wednesday evening that he had known David DeLaittre since the trooper “was a little kid.”

“His dad was a highway patrol trooper,” the mayor said. “(David) wanted to be in law enforcement his whole life.”

DeLaittre is the eighth and youngest trooper to have been killed in the line of duty and the first shot since 1978, according to the Montana Department of Justice’s “End of Watch” program.