Wyoming Highway Patrol officials are praising a Utah trucker who stopped to help a trooper wrestling roadside with a man for the trooper’s gun.

Trucker Darren Phillips of Taylorsville says service with the Marines and the Army National Guard helped him put the man in a choke hold and pull him off the trooper.

A second trooper arrived as Phillips restrained the man, who was taken into custody.

Officials say the struggle Thursday on Interstate 80 near Green River began as the trooper tried to take the suspect to the trooper’s car.

Highway Patrol Lt. Ben Schlosser says troopers found 74 pounds of marijuana and some cocaine in the man’s car.

Schlosser called Phillips a hero for stepping in.

The trooper suffered only cuts and bruises.