N.Y. Deputy’s Killing May Be Tied to Burglary

KIRKWOOD, N.Y. — A sheriff’s deputy was shot dead Thursday, possibly after confronting burglars who had stolen weapons from a Pennsylvania shop, police said.

Deputy Kevin J. Tarsia, 36, was shot in a parking lot in Kirkwood, near the New York-Pennsylvania line.

Just before the shooting, Pennsylvania police said someone used a pickup truck to ram the front door of Mess’s Fireworks in Great Bend, Pa., five miles south of Kirkwood. The thieves fled with rifles and handguns. The pickup was later recovered.

A call to the fireworks store was not immediately returned.

Tarsia, who lived in Kirkwood and worked for the sheriff for 13 years, was the first deputy killed in the line of duty since the sheriff’s department was founded in 1806.