A Highway Patrol Officer is recovering after being shot by a suspect during a traffic stop south of Cottonwood on Saturday. At around 10 minutes before Midnight, the officer pulled over a white Hyundai sedan on northbound Interstate 5 north of Hooker Creek Road. There were two men in the car and as the officer talked to them about the reason they had been pulled over, one of them shot him in the right thigh. The officer responded by returning fire into the car. Both men in the car were shot and one of them was declared dead at the scene. The other was transported to a hospital with major injuries. The northbound lanes of the freeway were shut down from Hooker Creek to Sunset Hills for about 12 hours as the incident was investigated by the Tehama County Sheriff’s and D.A.’s Offices, the State Department of Justice and the CHP. The officer has since been released from the hospital. The condition of the injured suspect is not available, nor are the names of any of the 3 men involved.