A police officer and a sheriff’s deputy were shot and killed in an upstate New York neighborhood Sunday night after exchanging gunfire with a suspect, who was also killed.
The shooting occurred just after 8 p.m. in Liverpool, about 6 miles north of Syracuse, the Associated Press reported.
Earlier in the night, two Syracuse Police Department officers attempted to pull over a suspicious vehicle, which fled the scene, the New York Post reported. The officers tracked the license plate to a home in Liverpool. More Syracuse officers arrived, along with Onondaga County sheriff’s deputies, and found what appeared to be firearms inside the car. Law enforcement then heard what sounded like someone “manipulating a firearm” inside the home, Syracuse Police Chief Joseph Cecile said in an early morning press conference.
“Moments later there was an exchange of gunfire between at least one suspect and the officers and the deputies,” Cecile added.
One of the two Syracuse police officers who first attempted to pull over the vehicle was struck and killed during the gunfire, along with a sheriff’s deputy. Both were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were pronounced dead. The suspect was also taken to the hospital, where he was also pronounced dead.
“We lost two heroes tonight,” Cecile said at the press conference. “Two men who answered the call to duty to put on the badge to protect the community, protect and serve. We lost two of them tonight.”
Photos published by the Post show dozens of police and sheriff’s department officials lined up along the streets outside the hospital where the officer and sheriff’s deputy were taken, saluting as law enforcement vehicles passed.
Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley called it a “sad day for law enforcement,” while Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said it was a “dark day for Syracuse.”
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“This is our worst nightmare come true,” Walsh added, according to the Post. “And our thoughts right now are with the families of those two officers — those two heroes.”
Neither the fallen officer nor the deputy have been named, but Cecile said the officer had been on the job for about three years and was “very active, very proactive.”
Shelley said the deceased deputy was a “seasoned” law enforcement officer and was “very well-liked in his community.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, posted on X that she was “horrified by the senseless killing” of the officer and the deputy.
“My prayers are with their families, loved ones, and their colleagues,” she wrote. “New York will never forget their heroism and service.”