The man suspected of shooting and killing two Topeka, Kan., police officers Sunday night was killed by Topeka police during a standoff at the shooter’s home.

Supervisor David Gogian, 50, and Officer Jeff Atherly, 29, were allegedly shot and killed by 22-year-old David Edward Tiscareno while responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle on Sunday night.

Topeka police officers killed Tiscareno following a 90-minute standoff at the suspect’s Topeka home. The standoff ended when Tiscareno tried to get out of his house holding a weapon. Officers responded by shooting and killing him, Fox 4 KC reported.

Gogian and Atherly were dispatched to a Dillons grocery store in central Topeka following a report of a suspicious vehicle.

“Within a couple of minutes, one of the officers reported that shots were fired,” a police spokeswoman, Kristen Veverka, told the Topeka Capital-Journal. “Two officers suffered life-threatening gunshot wounds and were transported to a hospital for treatment.”

Topeka Police Chief Ronald Miller said officers were speaking to occupants of the suspicious vehicle when shots rang out.

"I don't believe they had any idea this situation was going to go this direction as quickly as it did," Miller said, according to CBS News.

The police chief said he could not explain the tragedy.

"It's clearly beyond words. It's unspeakable almost about why this happens and why this is happening in America at this stage in our history," he said, according to the network.

Gogian had been with the Topeka Police Department since 2004 and was described by Miller as “quite a guy.”

Atherly was a new addition to the police force, having been hired in April 2011, according to the Capital-Journal.

A third officer also responded to the scene Sunday night, but was not injured.

Police said there were a number of people in the suspicious vehicle, and Topeka officers had spoken to some of them.

Witness Eva Waszczyseyn, 23, described the scene of the police shooting.

“It’s something your father would describe to you as seeing in war,” she told the Capital-Journal.

Topeka City Councilwoman Karen Hiller called the scene “tragic."

“Whatever happened, they were responding in the line of duty,” she said, of the slain police officers.

A vigil for the police officers killed in the shooting was held on Sunday night, in front of the Topeka Police Department building, according to Fox 4 KC.