BLUE MOUNTAIN, Colorado — Daily life for Lou Dean Jacobs is fairly routine in this remote and rugged place along the Colorado-Utah border.

She works on her latest book and takes her dogs — a border collie named Tuck Everlasting and a stray mutt named Keeper — for long walks every afternoon. That was her plan on Monday, until she heard a gunshot west of her home just before 2:30 p.m.

"I really didn't think a lot about that," said Jacobs, who prefers to be called Lou Dean. "There can be a lot of incidents around here where they have to shoot a deer or something that's been hit on the highway."

Lou Dean said she looked in the direction of the gunshot and could see a couple vehicles parked in the sagebrush near a barbed wire fence that surrounds the K Ranch. At first she thought they belonged to ranch employees, she said, so she drove up to talk to them.

"But as I got closer, I recognized the wildlife officer's pickup and thought, 'This isn't who I thought it was,' " Lou Dean said.

Then she saw Colorado Parks and Wildlife district manager Nathan Martinez standing with his gun pointed toward the ground. Martinez called out to her.

"Nate, the wildlife officer, said, 'This is a bad situation, and we just need your help,' " Lou Dean recalled Thursday.

Minutes earlier, Martinez and Moffat County sheriff's deputy Bhrent Shock had overpowered a Mississippi couple who had disarmed them and taken them hostage, according to court records. Martinez was pointing his gun at Georgie Louise Hand, having just shot and killed her husband, James Brent Damon.

"There was blood, and there were guns on the ground," Lou Dean said. "I mean, it's just the last thing you expect to see on Blue Mountain."

Martinez and Shock had responded to investigate a trespassing report involving a white Ford Explorer parked on private property north of U.S. 40 near Dinosaur, Colorado, authorities said.

Hand, 43, told investigators she and Damon, 46, were traveling to Utah from Mississippi on Sunday when their sport-utility vehicle was forced off the highway by a speeding car. The Explorer was damaged and inoperable, Hand told detectives, so Damon called a friend in Utah who agreed to pick the couple up the following day.

On Monday, while waiting for their ride, Hand said she and her husband walked uphill, away from their disabled vehicle. Damon was armed with a 9 mm handgun and Hand had a BB gun, she told investigators.

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Police: Couple involved in shooting near Dinosaur wanted in at least 4 states

James Brent Damon and Georgie Louise Hand were wanted in at least four states when authorities in Colorado say they took two officers hostage Monday in Moffat County, sparking a police shooting that left Damon dead and Hand in jail.

Some time later, the couple spotted Martinez walking up the hill toward them. Hand told investigators that Martinez "was friendly toward them," asking if they were OK and if they needed any help.

"Officer Martinez asked if they would walk down the hill with him," court records state. "Damon pulled his gun from his belt and pointed it at officer Martinez."

Martinez initially told investigators that he was disarmed by Hand, but in a subsequent interview said Damon may have been the one who took his gun. Hand told investigators that Damon ordered her to disarm the officer.

"If you try to touch her, if you lay a hand on her, I will shoot you," Damon told Martinez, according to court records.

Damon told Hand to keep Martinez's gun trained on the officer while he made Martinez throw away his police radio, investigators said. Shortly after that, Damon and Hand walked the officer down the hill toward their Explorer, where Shock was waiting.

"Immediately, Damon pointed his gun at deputy Shock's face and told deputy Shock to get on the ground," court records state. "Damon told deputy Shock he wasn't going to hurt him, but he needed to get out of here."

Shock's gun, Taser and police radio were taken, and then his right wrist was handcuffed to his duty belt, while Damon pressed a gun to the deputy's head, investigators wrote. Then Damon asked Hand which patrol vehicle they should take, court records state.

Martinez told Damon to take his vehicle and tossed his keys toward the man, he told investigators. Hand collected the keys and went to get the truck.

At this point, Martinez told detectives, Damon had the two officers on the side of the white Explorer that could not be seen from the highway. Martinez was sitting on the ground and Shock was kneeling.

"Officer Martinez knew they were going to die, but he wasn't going to die without a fight," investigators wrote. "Officer Martinez made the decision to get his own handgun back."

During the ensuing struggle, Shock took Damon to the ground and Martinez regained control of his gun. Damon was now on top of Shock and Martinez said he tried to fire a round, but his gun malfunctioned, court records state.

"Officer Martinez cleared the malfunction and was able to fire one round into the back of Damon's head, immediately incapacitating Damon," investigators wrote.

Martinez took Hand into custody at gunpoint and asked Lou Dean, who had just arrived, to free Shock from the handcuffs.

"(Shock) began to tell me how to get the key out of his pocket and get him unlocked," Lou Dean said. "I began to shake. It was not a pleasant situation."

Investigators say Hand told them the couple "shouldn't have been doing what we were doing." She also told detectives that she and Damon had been using methamphetamine for the past week, and had last injected the drug the day before the shooting, according to court records.

Damon and Hand were wanted in Utah, Colorado, Mississippi and Wyoming at the time of Monday's incident.

Hand was charged Thursday with two counts of attempted murder, four counts of kidnapping, four counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of disarming a peace officer, two counts of felony menacing, one count of trespassing and one count of possession of a weapon by a previous offender. She is being held without bail in the Moffat County Jail.

As for Lou Dean, she's still trying to cope with what she witnessed.

"I'm rattled, you know. It's just something that you get through," she said. "I'm glad (the officers) are all right and that I was able to help a little bit."

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