2 police fatally shot in West Memphis, Arkansas

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(CNN) -- Two police officers were fatally shot and another two were wounded Thursday in two separate shootings allegedly by the same suspects in West Memphis, Arkansas, police said.


The suspects, who were using an assault weapon, were themselves fatally shot.

The incident began around 11:40 a.m. (12:40 p.m. ET), when police made a traffic stop on a white minivan traveling eastbound on I-40 at Airport Road, said Inspector Bert Shelton, who is assigned to city hall for the West Memphis Police Department.

The occupant or occupants of the van shot two police officers and sped off, he said. One of the victims died at the scene; the other was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died, Shelton said. One of the two fatalities was the son of the city's chief of police, he added.

A short time later and about a mile away, in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart, two deputies searching for the suspects came across a white minivan and were shot and wounded as they approached the vehicle, Shelton said.

"The suspects were using an assault rifle," he said.

The suspects themselves were then fatally shot by other responding officers, he said.