WATER VALLEY, Miss. - A Mississippi sheriff has given a deputy a medal for bravery, three months after a shootout in which he was wounded and a Missouri man and woman were killed.

  

WTVA-TV reports that Yalobusha County sheriff's Deputy Thomas West received the medal at a banquet Saturday night.

  

Authorities have told news media that that he had just found a stolen all-terrain vehicle in some woods when someone started shooting at him from behind it.

  

Birdshot hit his arm and just above his bullet-proof vest, and grazed his neck and arms.

  

Two other officers joined him.

  

News media reported that a man died at the scene and a woman died at a hospital.

  

They were identified as Missouri residents: 41-year-old Robert Berube of Windsor and 24-year-old Jamie Dougan of Raytown.