Two sheriff's deputies were killed Wednesday morning while serving a warrant to a convicted felon who was well known to police, officials said.

Deputies Michael VanKuren and Christopher M. Burgert, were shot in the driveway of a junkyard in rural north-central Pennsylvania, just miles from the New York border, Bradford County Sheriff Steve Evans said. Both were wearing bullet-resistant vests.

Authorities were searching for Dustin F. Briggs, 27, who was

wanted on a bench warrant for failing to appear in court and who

was previously convicted of criminal possession of a weapon, a

felony.

Police said Briggs was on the run and was armed and dangerous. A

wanted poster with his photo was circulated throughout the county.

Briggs had been in trouble with police for years, said Mike

Powers, mayor of nearby Troy, and about six months ago had tried to

run over a Troy police officer.

Police were contacting acquaintances of Briggs in both New York

and Pennsylvania, trying to get more information on where he might

be, Kelly said.

State and local police, sheriff's deputies and the FBI streamed

in from surrounding areas Wednesday to search for Briggs. Police

stopped every car that passed at road blocks set up throughout the

area. Police in New York were searching highways in that state.

Police had two people in custody, both relatives of Briggs' who

were at the house during the shooting, Kelly said. One of those

relatives called 911 to alert authorities of the shootings, he

said.

Kelly said one of the deputies' guns was missing.

The sheriff said his deputies had been at the junkyard not only

to serve the bench warrant on Briggs, but also to apprehend a

second person on a felony drug charge. The sheriff would not name

that person, but said the charge was related to a methamphetamine

lab discovered on the property in July.

Township Supervisor John Shimoko said area schools also had been

locked down after the shooting.

The Briggs junkyard is in Wells Township, about 10 miles

southwest of Elmira, N.Y.