HARRISBURG — A retired Pennsylvania trooper who fatally shot two turnpike employees at a toll plaza, then was killed trying to unload money from a toll collection van, had filed for bankruptcy last year.

Clarence Briggs, 54, killed Danny Crouse, a toll collector, and Ronald Heist, a former police officer working security, on Sunday morning at a rural toll plaza in central Pennsylvania, police said.

Police said Briggs was shot in an exchange of gunfire with state troopers after driving the toll-collection vehicle to a spot where his own car was parked.

Briggs and his wife, Donna, had debts of $315,000, a good chunk of it owed to credit card companies, when they sought bankruptcy protection in March 2015, according to court records. Their bankruptcy lawyer, Chad Julius, said the couple’s repayment plan had been approved and they were making the required installments.

State police gave the following account of the crime:

Just before 7 a.m., Martha Delores Berkstresser was finishing her overnight shift taking tolls at the Fort Littleton exchange, about 60 miles west of Harrisburg.

Briggs, displaying a gun, approached her tollbooth on foot and forced her and her relief, Crouse, into a nearby building, where Briggs directed her to tie Crouse’s hands with cord. Berkstresser said she left the cord loose, and Crouse tried to grab Briggs’ weapon, giving her a chance to run from the building.

Berkstresser called turnpike headquarters for help and saw two men in a turnpike-owned fare-collection van pull up. Heist jumped from the van, after which he and Crouse were shot.

Briggs drove the van a short distance to where his blue 2004 BMW 325xi was parked. State police came upon Briggs loading bags of money into the trunk of his car. He was shot in the upper left leg during an exchange of gunfire with troopers.