Two police officers were killed in a shootout on Sunday evening as they investigated a stolen vehicle in an upstate New York town near Syracuse, the authorities said.
The two officers were investigating a parked vehicle in Salina, N.Y., when a suspect shot at them, Syracuse Police Chief Joseph L. Cecile told reporters early Monday morning. He gave no indication of a possible motive.
Several people were shot in the ensuing shootout, including an officer from the Syracuse Police Department, a sheriff’s deputy from Onondaga County and one male suspect, the police said. Those three were later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Earlier in the evening, around 7 p.m.., two Syracuse officers tried to stop what they had determined to be a suspicious vehicle, but the driver drove off, the police said.
Officers later tracked the vehicle’s license plate to a residence in Liverpool, a village in Salina, Onondaga County Sheriff Tobias Shelley told reporters on Sunday night.
After receiving information that the driver might be armed, the Syracuse officers requested assistance from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office, Chief Cecile said.
Sheriff Shelley said officers were investigating the shootout and that there was no danger to the community.
“It’s a dark day for Syracuse,” Mayor Ben Walsh of Syracuse said at the news conference on Monday. “This is our worst nightmare come true.”
