BELLEFONTAINE NEIGHBORS, Mo. (AP) — A police detective and a suspect died in a head-on collision of their vehicles near St. Louis following a police attempt to stop the suspect’s car, authorities said.

The crash happened Wednesday afternoon after officers with the St. Louis County sheriff's department’s drug unit tried to stop a car that had been reported stolen, and the car fled, police said.

An unmarked police vehicle driven by Detective Antonio Valentine was traveling eastbound toward the scene of the attempted stop when the suspect’s speeding westbound car crossed the centerline and collided with Valentine’s vehicle in Bellefontaine Neighbors, a suburb just north of St. Louis, officials said.

Both Valentine and the suspect were rushed to a hospital, where they died. Another detective who had been riding with Valentine also was injured and was treated and released from a hospital, police said.

Police did not immediately release the name of the male suspect who died.

Valentine, 42, had been with the department since 2007 and had recently been assigned to the Bureau of Drug Enforcement, police said. He was an Army combat veteran of Iraq and had recently retired from the Air Force Reserve.

___

This story has been corrected to indicate that police said they didn't chase the suspect after he fled the traffic stop.