Shootings leave 2 dead at NW Indiana convenience store

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Two sheriff's deputies responding to a shooting at a northwestern Indiana convenience store where two people were fatally shot returned fire after an armed suspect fired at them, police said Monday.

Indiana State Police Police did not immediately disclose who fired the shots Sunday night that killed the two people at the store. The police agency was awaiting autopsy results on the two victims before releasing details on how they died - one inside the Family Express convenience store in Lafayette and the other near the store's gas pumps, said Sgt. Kim Riley.

He said Monday that the deceased 'Å“were both local" residents. Authorities did not immediately release their names.

Tippecanoe County Sheriff Bob Goldsmith said that an armed person outside the store fired at two of his deputies after they arrived there in response to a 911 call about a shooting at the business.

Goldsmith said the deputies then returned fire, the Journal & Courier reported.

Riley said that when the officers arrived, one person was dead inside the store and the armed person was outside the store. When deputies tried to detain that person, shots were fired and that person was killed.

It remained unclear who fired the shot or shots that killed the person outside the store and the person inside the store.

State police are investigating the shooting at Goldsmith's request. Both deputies were placed Monday on paid administrative leave.