Fischer was an assistant pastor at Faith Bible Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The officers were responding to reports of a motorist stuck in rising waters on a rural road south of Tulsa after 9 p.m. last Friday, The Guardian reports.
Severe weather has claimed the lives of seven people in Oklahoma, and has battered Texas heavily as well.
Police say that the officers told Nehemiah Fischer, 35, and his brother Brandon, to leave their stalled car and find higher ground. A confrontation broke out and Nehemiah Fischer was shot dead. Brandon Fischer wasn’t hurt, but was arrested on suspicion of alleged assault, the Guardian reports.
“They would not have gone after the trooper … they would not do that on their own volition,” Laura Fischer said.
Captain Paul Timmons, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, says that Fischer had a gun. Timmons also said he couldn’t provide more detail regarding whether Fischer was armed at the moment of the shooting and who fired the shots.
“A handgun was found,” he told the Guardian. “I can’t verify whether it was being brandished but the deceased individual did have a handgun … the investigators are still trying to determine how many shots were fired. We know there was more than one but an exact number, I don’t have that information available yet.”
He added that the officers involved will be placed on administrative leave, which is routine when police are involved in a serious incident. More information, including the names of the officers, will be released later this week.
Now, Laura Fischer wants to see any dashboard camera or video, because this may shed more light on the incident, AJC.com reports.
Fischer says her husband was a man of the church and not a fighter. She says this is one of the reasons she doesn’t believe what she’s heard about the incident.
“He was the nicest person I’ve ever met,” she said. “He was very giving. He made me want to be a better person.”
June would have been their one-year wedding anniversary, she said.
“We loved each other. It was perfect. I was so thankful for my life,” Fischer said.
“He honestly completed my life. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said, speaking through tears, The New York Daily News reports, per KOKI-TV.
Nehemiah Fischer, whose middle name was “Blessed,” was a graduate of The University of Tulsa.
