An Arizona state trooper is alive today because a gun-toting stranger came to his rescue as an assailant smashed the trooper's head into the pavement Thursday.

A 27-year Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper came upon the scene of a rollover crash on Interstate 10 in Tonopah, Arizona, early Thursday at about 4:20 a.m. A woman had been ejected in the accident and later died.

Then the officer, who has not yet been named in news reports, pulled over to investigate and block off lanes of traffic with flares.

Suddenly a man ambushed the trooper and shot him in the right shoulder, according to Arizona's KPNX-TV 12. The assailant continued to attack the wounded officer, smashing his head into the concrete.

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"The suspect is getting the better of the trooper and is on top of him and striking the trooper's head on the pavement," said Arizona DPS Director Col. Frank Milstead, who provided details of the incident to reporters.

That's when an unnamed Good Samaritan, who had been traveling toward California on the interstate with his wife, quickly pulled over to help.

The passerby asked the trooper if he needed assistance, and the officer replied, "Please help me."

"That person retreats back to his vehicle, removes his own weapon from the vehicle, confronts the suspect, giving him orders to stop assaulting the officer," Milstead said.

Meet the "'man who shot back" against terrorists, and prevented maybe hundreds of deaths.

But the attacker refused to stop beating the trooper.

So the Good Samaritan fired several shots, killing the suspect and saving the officer's life.

He then picked up the officer's radio and requested help. The trooper is now conscious and in stable condition at a local hospital. He is expected to undergo surgery on his shoulder.

"I don't know if my trooper would be alive today without his assistance," Milstead said, thanking the Good Samaritan.

He also noted that the officer had been "heroically" responding to a collision in the middle of major traffic while it was "pitch black" outside.

"Everybody wants to make this job seem easy, that anybody could do it," he said. "Well, I will tell you that not everybody can do this job. You have to have a servant mentality, and you have to have a sense of confidence about yourself and your ability to react in a moment's notice. It is the unknown that causes the problems with police and bad people.

"These are good men and women who go to church with you. They go to Costco at the same Costco you do. They're your neighbors. The media tries to make us somehow different than everybody else in society. We're not. We're just the ones who are here to serve and protect you. We're the ones who will give our lives to protect somebody who can't protect themselves."

The biblical mandate for armed self-defense! Get "Shooting Back" today!