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 police 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 arrived at the address and were inspecting the suspicious vehicle and saw what they thought were firearms inside when shots 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 three were pronounced dead.

Liverpool is one of five small suburban communities in the town of Salina, according to Salina’s website.

ceto investigate a stolen vehicle. responded to Darien Drive in the town of Salina, with the help of the 

“We lost two heroes tonight,” Cecile said.

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.”