A man reportedly rammed a stolen truck into a house before fatally shooting a retired Black Massachusetts State Soldier and Black Air Force veteran on Saturday, police said. Authorities said they were investigating the incident as a hate crime.

The suspect was later killed by police as they attempted to apprehend him, investigators said.

David L. Green, a 36-year-old force veteran, and Ramona Cooper, 60, lived in Winthrop, Massachusetts, where the Saturday afternoon incident took place, police said.

At around 2:45 p.m., the suspect, identified by police on Sunday as Nathan Allen, 28, allegedly drove a stolen box truck to a house, but there was no one at the house at the time, police said.

Winthrop Police Chief Terence Delehanty told reporters when officers arrived at the scene they found a shot dead victim half a block away.

The second victim “engaged with the suspect” in an alley not far from the crash and was shot, Delehanty said.

Cooper was shot three times in the back and Green four times in the head and three times in the torso, Suffolk County Prosecutor Rachael Rollins said at a press briefing on Sunday.

Green died at the scene while Cooper was pronounced dead in hospital, police said.

Officers shot Allen, who was shot and later died in hospital, police said. An officer was hit by a bullet but was not seriously injured, Delehanty said.

Rollins said Allen had “a disturbing white supremacist rhetoric found in [his] own handwriting “, and there was evidence of” anti-Semitic and racist statements against black individuals “.

The prosecutor said the suspect walked near several other people who were not black after crashing the truck.

“They were not injured,” she said. “They are alive and these two visible colored people are not.”

Rollins said Allen had a legal license to transport what was transferred from another city. The investigation is ongoing.

Massachusetts State Police Col. Christopher Mason said Green joined the Metropolitan District Commission Police in 1980. According to Mason, he became a Massachusetts State Soldier in 1992 when the United States Police. MDC merged with the state police and served for another 14 years before retiring.

“Trooper Green was widely respected and appreciated by his fellow Troopers, many of whom yesterday described him as a ‘true gentleman’ and always courteous to the public and meticulous in his duties,” Mason said in a statement.

“From what we learned yesterday, he was held in the highest regard by his neighbors and friends in Winthrop,” Mason said.