ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Surrounded by her family and friends on Thursday, the wife of a state trooper killed during a traffic stop in June talked about her experiences since his death.

Michaela Blanton sat at a table with only a bottle of water and a lone microphone in the middle of a room packed with lights and cameras.

She started by describing her late husband, Shawn, as outgoing and stubborn at times. She said she and Shawn had only been dating three months when he proposed and six months later, the two were married.

“I had always imagined growing old with Shawn, of course,” Blanton said.

In May, Brendan Tye Blanton was born two months premature. Michaela Blanton said Shawn always talked about his son and about being a father. However, she said the two agreed that Shawn would stay on the job to help cover the bills and support his family.

“We had agreed that he would take time off when Tye got to come home,” Blanton said.

Two months later, Tye is still in the hospital and his father will never get to see his son come home.

Blanton also opened up about the night Shawn was killed. She said she sent him several text messages but he never replied. Then she said a friend called her a short time later.

“Shawn is downstairs in the emergency room and he’s been shot,” Blanton said as she recounted the phone call. “I expected him to be sitting up with his arm bandaged being like, ‘OK. I’ve been shot but I’m OK.”

The trooper’s injuries were too severe and he died in the same hospital where his son was fighting for his life.

“I know Tye could really use his dad and I know he could find a lot of strength in Shawn being here,” Blanton said. “I will understand if Shawn needs him more than I do and to me that would be the only way Tye would be taken.”

Blanton said she did not want to talk about the suspect in her husband’s death, Edwardo Wong.

Wong has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Friday. It was not clear if Wong would be in the courtroom for the hearing.

Wong was being held at a Haywood County jail on a first-degree murder charge and various other charges, as well.