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A war veteran died in a shootout with police after carjacking a family and threatening to kill co-workers.

Casey Nolen, KSDK 7:25 AM. CDT July 27, 2017

Photo: Jarrod Kershaw

ST. LOUIS - Monday, as his family watched his fate unfold on the news Jerrod Kershaw's aunt says she couldn't believe how his life was ending.

Totally, totally not him, says Debra Collins who says as Kershaws godmother shes known him all of his life.

Wearing a bullet proof vest and armed with several weapons, police say the 30 year old car jacked a family who stopped to help him on the side of Interstate 55 near 270, then led police on a chase that stalled traffic for hours ending in a standoff and shootout with police.

No officers were seriously injured. Kershaw was killed in the exchange.

That's not the boy I know, says Collins. He's not an angel, but not a devil.

And not the man he was before he went to war, she says. Collins says the Army was not a good thing for Kershaw. His father passed away during his boot camp and, he deployed four days before the birth of his first child - spending most of 2010 in Iraq.

That was a life change for him, says Collins. I think that's why he was so troubled was because he just, his emotions just took a pounding.

A nurse in Columbia, Missouri, Collins says Kershaw stopped taking medications for his mental health a little over a week before he allegedly opened fire on officers.

I feel bad for the police officers...feel so sad for them that he made them shoot himI feel very sad for the family that he terrorized.

We the family love him and we'll miss him, Collins said.

2017 KSDK-TV

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Aunt: veteran in I-55 shootout changed in Iraq - KSDK