BONNE TERRE, Mo. — Family, friends and the Bonne Terre community are mourning the loss of Patrolman Lane Burns.
"I want to give him a hug. That's all I want. I just want to give him a hug and I just want somebody to tell me that he's OK, but he's not," said Shannon Chasteen, Burns' fiancée.
Burns died after a gunman opened fire on him and another officer responding to a disturbance call at a Motel 6 in Bonne Terre early Thursday morning.
The other officer injured was identified as 27-year-old Cpl. Garrett Worley. He was airlifted to a St. Louis hospital in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the leg. At last check early Thursday morning, he was in surgery. He's been with the department for seven years.
5 On Your Side spoke to Chasteen from the motel just hours after Burns was killed.
"I have an app on my phone that I hear the calls come over a dispatch and I heard the call to dispatch to the hotel," Chasteen said. "And I texted him, I said, be safe because dispatch said the guy had a gun. I texted him, be safe. He read the message, and about three or four minutes later, I heard the third officer yelling for help on the radio that he needed backup because two officers had been shot."
Chasteen said she often listens to the dispatch calls when Burns is working.
"I listen to the scanner from 30 minutes before he goes on duty to the second he goes off duty and I've heard him dispatched to many calls," she said.
She said she prays for him during the calls and texts him to make sure he's OK.
"I listen mostly for dispatch to do the security checks on him and didn't get that security check this time."
Chasteen and Burns had been dating for eight months and lived together. She said he recently asked her to marry him and asked her to pick out a ring. He was planning a full proposal in May.
She said Burns has a 9-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, and she will get his badge to help remember her father by.
"My message to her would be to just hold on to his badge. She's going to get his badge. So hold on to it. Remember him, remember him for the man that everybody knows that he is or he was. That's the best message I can give on give to her," Chasteen said.
The BackStoppers, Inc., which is helping the family of Burns, also said Burns left behind a 5-year-old child.
Chasteen said Burns was from Carthage, Missouri, and loved blacksmithing and wanted to open up a powder coating shop.
Burns also loved his job. He loved specifically being a Bonne Terre police officer.
"He loved being a Bonne Terre police officer," she said. "In his honor, I really want to emphasize that he loved Bonne Terre. He loved it. He loved the officers that he worked with. He loved his chief. He told me that if he were to ever get out of law enforcement, he would never work anywhere other than Bonne Terre."
Chasteen was asked how she wanted Burns to be remembered.
"I don't understand why people have problems with police officers. They're there to help you. I want Lane to be remembered that he was serving his community. He was protecting his other officers," she said.
BackStoppers said it is assisting with expenses for Burns' family. For more information on how to donate to BackStoppers, click here.