BATON ROUGE- Tonight, a story of heroism is emerging about a deputy who is fighting for his life. It was a chance encounter with a stranded motorist in Baton Rouge.

Deputy Nick Tullier is an 18-year veteran of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office. He's assigned to traffic.

Billy Rimes won't ever forget what Deputy Tullier did for him. That kind act and service to his community has Rimes reeling and praying for a miracle.

"I hit a curb," Rimes said. "It cut my tire and it went flat. It was one of the hottest days of the year. It was so hot when I touched the asphalt it almost burned my hand."

Rimes still has a donut on his front driver's side tire. Each lugnut on this spare fastened tightly to Rimes' car. Moments after stopping on the road, Deputy Nick Tullier stopped to help.

"All of a sudden, a sheriff's deputy pulls up behind me," Rimes said. "He said why don't you let me do that? I said no I'll figure that out. He said no no hold on I got you."

That's when Rimes recalls Tullier taking care of everything and sending Rimes on his way.

"Before we left I said look, let me buy you a nice dinner tonight," Rimes said. "I tried to hand him some money. He said no I can't do that. That's not necessary, this is what we do. These were his exact words."

So instead, Rimes did something else.

"A lot of times people ask for your name and your badge number and they mean that in a negative way," Rimes said. "I want to say something nice about you. In a humble way, he said you don't have to do that. I said I want to."

Sunday, Rimes woke up to the news of what he thought was a nightmare. When reality set in, Rimes realized one of the deputies shot was the one who helped him days earlier in what is now an emotional connection.

"I'm heart sick over this," Rimes said.