[chris]

Capac, Michigan, police chief Raymond Hawks was shot and critically wounded on April 16, 2008, when a driver he had gone to confront over a reckless driving complaint stepped out of his house with a rifle and opened fire, according to law enforcement accounts of the shooting.

Hawks had dealt with the driver, identified by authorities as Donald Burke, on prior occasions and radioed for backup before approaching him, telling colleagues he expected trouble. St. Clair County sheriff's deputy Tim O'Boyle responded to assist. When a tow truck arrived to haul away Burke's car over the reckless driving complaint, Burke emerged from the house with a rifle and began firing at the officers and at the tow truck driver, authorities said.

Hawks was struck at least twice, in the shoulder and chest, and was rushed to a Port Huron hospital in critical condition for surgery. O'Boyle suffered a graze wound to the head and was treated and released. News accounts of the shooting reported no injury to the tow truck driver.

Burke retreated into his house as officers surrounded the property. A junior and senior high school in the village of roughly 1,800 residents was briefly locked down as a precaution, according to reports at the time. More than five hours later, officers entered the home and found it empty.

An overnight search followed for Burke, described by authorities as a white man in his fifties with a pronounced limp. Investigators found him hiding inside a commercial vehicle less than a quarter mile from his house around 1 a.m. and took him into custody without further incident.

St. Clair County prosecutors initially sought a warrant charging Burke with assault with intent to commit murder. He was tried in St. Clair County Circuit Court on three counts of attempted murder, covering Hawks, O'Boyle and the tow truck driver, plus one count of felony firearm possession. Burke testified he had no memory of the shooting. A jury convicted him on all four counts on October 20, 2008.

A judge sentenced Burke, then 51, to 30 to 60 years in prison on November 21, 2008. Hawks, a Capac native who became police chief after retiring from the Pontiac Police Department, survived his wounds.