A Mass will be said at noon Thursday at the Panasci Family Chapel – and the flags on the Grewen quad will fly at half-staff until next week – due to a tragedy that occurred Sunday in Salina, near Syracuse, involving the deaths of Syracuse Police Officer Michael Jensen and Onondaga County Sheriff Lt. Michael Hoosock, both part of the larger Le Moyne College community.

Jensen, 29, earned his undergraduate degree from Le Moyne in 2017 and earned his MBA from the college a year later. Hoosock, 37, attended Le Moyne during the 2004-05 academic year.

According to Syracuse.com, Christopher Murphy, 33, allegedly fled the scene of a Sunday evening Tipperary Hill traffic stop. Onondaga County Sheriff Tobias Shelley told Syracuse.com that Jensen and Hoosock were “ambushed” and shot to death when they were among law enforcement officers responding to Murphy’s home in Salina, based on information police gleaned from the license plates of the driver eluding arrest.

Both officers were fatally wounded at the scene. Murphy, identified by investigators as the suspect, was shot by law enforcement officers during an exchange of gunfire and also died, police told Syracuse.com.

The Le Moyne community, mourning the loss of two former students, will gather for Thursday’s noon Mass, offered by Rev. Patrick Rogers, according to school officials. In an open letter shared Monday by college president Linda LeMura, she informed students, faculty and friends of the college of the deep connections between the two former Dolphins and their school.

“During this time of intense grief, our prayers go out to both men, their family and friends,” LeMura wrote, noting the flags will remain at half-mast until next Monday “to commemorate this tremendous loss.”

Rev. Jason Downer, interim director of Le Moyne’s campus ministry, wrote in an email to The Dolphin that working through the grief will be difficult after “a situation that breaks our hearts,” but he called upon the community to draw even closer together.

“We need to acknowledge our authentic and complicated emotions in order to help move towards a lasting sense of peace,” Downer wrote. “It’s not easy, nor is it quick, but it’s a sacred process so be gentle with yourself and with others as we navigate it together.”

By Corinne Becker, Aidan Clark, La Quida Cummings, Payton Hirsch, Annie Hubert, Jonathan Marks, Legende McGrath, Aidan Mingoia, Stephen Moore, Nicholas Nevins, Carly Nicolai, Joseph Pezzimenti, Stephen Riale, Claire Rickett, Kamilla Shahzad and Mary Anne Winfield.