Video recordings show just how suddenly a traffic stop on the freeway near Albany last summer turned into a deadly firefight.

They also explain why it took some time to realize that the suspect had shot himself. The action is a blur, and it’s over in seconds.

The Oregon State Police have decided against making the tapes public, citing an exemption in the Oregon public records law relating to material that would reveal methods used to protect officers.

But at state police headquarters in Salem Friday, officials played the tapes for the Democrat-Herald.

The incident happened in the northbound lanes of I-5 on Aug. 25, 2006, just opposite the Albany Paper Mill.

The tapes show the scene: Bright and sunny, mid-day, traffic heavy.

Trooper Russell Decker, 33, is on the driver’s side of a car they have stopped. Senior Trooper Huff Meyr, 40, is on the passenger side.

Meyr turns on the mike of the recording system in his cruiser and talks to the driver, calmly and politely. License. Registration. Any weapons? Please step out of the car.

The driver’s side opens and a dark-clad figure jumps out, wheels and brings his right hand around, firing at Decker just a couple of feet away.

Decker ducks and at the same time pulls his weapon and shoots. From the other side, Meyr fires as well.

The suspect hops on his left leg. His right leg has been shot. Broken femur.

Only a second or two have passed when he whips his gun up to his head and fires. As he falls, his last shot hits the pavement, and there’s a puff of dust.

Decker leans on his car. He’s been hit, he says, and they take off his protective vest. The video is grainy, but big bruises clearly show on his left side, back and front. No entry wound, somebody says.

Decker has been hit three times, in the foot in addition to his vest-protected torso.

Trooper Jeff Lewis, who had come up from his backup position, rushes in to render aid. One of the troopers puts some fabric under the head of the mortally wounded shooter.

Somebody says to stop traffic. Volunteer EMTs from Jefferson Rural come into the frame.

It’s about seven seconds between the first and last shots, says OSP Capt. Calvin G. Curths, the headquarters official who supervises the Albany office.

They count nine shots fired by the driver; seven by the two officers combined.

Five hit the shooter. None hit passing traffic. One slug is recovered later from the paper mill across the freeway.

The driver, later identified as John Paul Tolliver, 26, of Mitchville, Md., dies at the Corvallis hospital the next day.

It’s been six months since the shooting. Curths says the final internal review is nearly complete, and all three officers did exactly what they were trained to do. Commendations may be in the works.