Mounties are asking the public to help identify a person of interest after a rural roadside shooting left one utility worker wounded and a second person dead.

Driving two different trucks, the two were shot around midday Tuesday on a rural road just east of Calgary, sparking an emergency alert telling nearby residents to take shelter as two armed and dangerous suspects were on the loose.

RCMP have released a photograph of a man with tattoos on his right arm, wearing a bucket hat.

They say they believe he may have information to help their homicide investigation, and that was seen in Cochrane on Monday, between 7 and 8 a.m.

Mounties have yet to make an arrest, but have said the shooting was not targeted.

RCMP say officers investigating the shooting are also looking into the theft of a quad from a property in Wheatland County on Wednesday afternoon.

Police have said they want to speak to the occupants of a dark grey Volkswagen Golf Sportwagon who may have witnessed the shooting. They have also appealed for information about a white 2013 Dodge Ram pickup truck with teal-coloured rims that was reported stolen in Calgary a day earlier.

The Canadian Press