Two officers and a suspect are dead after a shootout Sunday night in Liverpool, N.Y., a suburb of Syracuse, authorities say.
Syracuse Police Chief Joseph Cecile told a news conference that at about 7 p.m., two Syracuse officers “initiated a traffic stop on a suspicious vehicle” that took off. The officers “lost sight of the vehicle” but were able “to track it to an address in Liverpool” via its license plate.
According to Cecile, at a little after 8 p.m., Syracuse officers and deputies from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office got to the address and were inspecting the suspicious vehicle when they saw what they thought were firearms inside. Then, shots suddenly rang out and there was “an exchange of gunfire.”
Cecile said a Syracuse officer and a deputy, along with the suspect, were hit and brought to a hospital, where all were pronounced dead. There was no word on whether anyone else was wounded.
Cecile said the officer who was killed had about three years on the job. Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley told reporters the slain deputy was “seasoned” and “very well-liked in his community. … (He was) just a great guy.”
Cecile said, “We lost two heroes tonight.”
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh called it a “dark day” for his city, “our worst nightmare come true. Our thoughts right now are with the families of those two officers. Those heroes.”
“Every time something like this happens, people come together no matter where they’re from,” Sheriff Shelley said, according to CBS Syracuse affiliate WTVH. “It’s a challenge. I don’t care if you have 20 years on the job or one, it’s a challenge.”
Liverpool is one of five small suburban communities in the town of Salina, according to Salina’s website.