PALMYRA, Ind. (WDRB) -- Indiana State Police investigators are still trying to sort out details after a double shooting that left two people dead in Palmyra Monday night. 

It happened just before 10 p.m. evening on the side of a busy roadway, just in front of a witness's driveway on State Road 135 in Palmyra. The witness tells WDRB she heard an officer shouting commands -- and then gunfire -- just seconds after driving by. 

"We were pulling in and we slowed down because we saw the cop car and a person walking towards the center of the road," said Alley Burns.

Monday evening, Burns drove by the scene on State Road 135 and even had a conversation with a man in the roadway.

"He was directing traffic and trying to help out and I slowed down and I talked to him for a second," Burns recalled. 

Burns said just moments later, things took a drastic turn.

"I heard the cop say, 'drop your weapon! drop your weapon' and there were more gunshots," said Burns.

Burns says she heard several shots fired, and police swarmed the area.

"I mean, they shut down the road from both ways," Burns said. "And people were using our driveway and the one across the street to turn around," said Burns.

Police say it all started with a report of a stranded motorist.

"When the Palmyra Officer arrived, the car was already off the road," said Sgt. Carey Huls, Indiana State Police. "At the same time, a pickup truck with two individuals had stopped to assist, as good Samaritans."

Right now, police still don't know how or why things got violent.

Sgt. Huls said, "Shortly after everybody exited their vehicles to assist shots were fired and two individuals were hit."

According to police, the stranded driver was 31-year-old Justin Moore from Owensboro. The good Samaritan has been identified as 24-year-old Jacob McClanahan from Corydon, who was a volunteer with the Ramsey Fire Department and worked for the Harrison County Highway Department. Both men died at the scene, but but police still haven't released who fired shots or why.

"We don't want to speculate but it does appear that it started as a very simple trying to help somebody on the side of the road," said Sgt. Huls.

And if that's what actually happened, Burns said it could have happened to anyone. "That's kind of our general sense of what we do for everybody around here," she said. "We stop and we help somebody that's on the side of the road, we don't just leave somebody sitting there."

The scene is near Morgan Elementary School.

Meanwhile, autopsies were scheduled for Wednesday. Police believe they'll be able to release more information once they have those results.

Copyright 2022 by WDRB Media. All rights reserved.