UPDATE: The names of the two teens killed in the officer-involved shooting have been released. 17-year-old Dhal Pothwi Apet and 15-year-old Lueth Mo were killed in the shooting. Both teenagers were Henninger High School students, the Syracuse City School District confirms.
More on the teens and the response from Syracuse Schools
DEWITT, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Sources tell NewsChannel 9 the two teens shot and killed by an Onondaga County Sheriff’s Deputy were a 15-year-old and 17-year-old.
The two were shot at the Midler Meadows mobile home park on Danzig Street in DeWitt but were found not breathing after crashing a stolen vehicle on Hixson Avenue in Syracuse on Wednesday morning, September 6.
Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley says his deputy was defending himself after the teens tried to run him over.
The two dead teens were part of a group of six accused of stealing two vehicles from Eastwood in Syracuse Tuesday evening. The vehicles were a Kia and a Hyundai.
The teens then allegedly drove the stolen vehicles to rob a smoke shop on Route 5 in Oneida and another smoke shop on Molloy Road in Mattydale.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the deputy located the stolen vehicles at Danzig Street.
After spotting the stolen vehicles, one of the cars with three juveniles inside drove off, while the other vehicle with the three other juveniles allegedly attempted to run the Deputy over, according to Shelley.
The Deputy then fired three shots at the vehicle and it was found later by a sergeant in the Sheriff’s Office at Mooney Ave in Syracuse. One of the occupants in the vehicle was found dead, and another died after initial treatment on the scene, Shelley said.
Four suspects are still on the run: the third person in the vehicle that crashed and three in the second vehicle that got away.
The deputy involved in this shooting has not been involved in any previous shootings and is now on paid administrative leave per the Sheriff’s Office policy after an officer-involved shooting. His name won’t be released for 72 hours.
The Sheriff’s Office is working with Oneida Police to investigate the robbery, along with the New York State Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation, which has opened its own investigation into the teens’ deaths.
The Sheriff’s Office held a press conference about the investigation, which you can watch in the player below.
