EDDYVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky state trooper who made a seemingly routine traffic stop was trying to arrange for lodging for the vehicle’s occupants when the driver took off, starting a tragic chain of events that led to the deaths of both the lawman and the suspect, police said Monday.

Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder, 31, was shot by the suspect a short time later during a second stop late Sunday in a rural area of western Kentucky, said Trooper Jay Thomas, a state police spokesman.

Ponder, a Navy veteran, had been on the state police force less than a year.

The suspect, 25-year-old Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks of Florissant, Missouri, ran away and was found hours later after a massive overnight manhunt in a wooded area about 9 miles from the initial stop and less than a mile from where the trooper had been gunned down, Thomas said.

Johnson-Shanks drew a weapon at a state police trooper, ignored commands to drop his weapon and was shot, Thomas said. He died later at a hospital.

Thomas said at the first stop, Ponder discovered Johnson-Shanks’ operator’s license was suspended and neither of the other adults in the car had a driver’s license.

Thomas said Ponder was trying to make arrangements for a hotel for the night so someone could come for Johnson-Shanks and the others.

“He was trying to help them out, and for an unknown reason, the driver fled,” Thomas said.