FHP Trooper Shot & Killed In Haiti

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The Florida Highway Patrol announced Saturday evening that one of its troopers had been killed in Haiti.

FHP said two men flagged down Trooper Jean Barthelus on the roadside and then shot and killed him last Friday evening in Port-Au-Prince.  Bathelus had gone to Haiti to visit his ailing wife.

"We're just torn a part," said close friend Dorothy Borgelin, "We don't know what to say, we don't know what to do.  If it was here maybe we'd say there was a motive, we don't know what the motive is and that's what is killing us.  We don't know if somebody was trying to rob him."

"I feel sad because he was like a father image to me in my life.  He's gone and there's nothing else to say about that," said Barthelus' niece Michelle.

Trooper Barthelus was an eight-year veteran of the FHP. He joined FHP in December 2004 and was assigned to Troop E-Miami.

FHP said Barthelus is survived by his wife, daughter, mother, and several brothers and sisters.