ABBEVILLE, S.C. - Two officers were killed Monday in a standoff started by a family angry with the state and federal government and ended in "a horrendous gunfight," S.C. Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart said.

The attack apparently was a planned assault involving at least three members of the Bixby family who lived at a house on S.C. 72, Stewart said. Neighbors said the family had been upset because the state planned to take some of their land to widen S.C. 72. Abbeville is about 150 miles southwest of Charlotte.

The incident began about 9 a.m. when an Abbeville County magistrate's officer, whom authorities identified as 63-year-old Donnie Ouzts, arrived at the Bixbys' small white house. It ended after 11 p.m. with two dead, at least one of the Bixbys wounded and three family members in custody.

Ouzts, who may have gone to the house with information about the widening, officials said, hadn't checked in after arriving there. Two Abbeville County Sheriff's deputies went to the house and found the officer dead.

One of the deputies, Danny Wilson, apparently was taken into the home and was later found dead there. The other deputy escaped without injury.

After hours of tense negotiations between special military-tactic teams, police and those in the house, officials stormed the house. Arthur Bixby was shot at least once, Stewart said. His condition was unavailable early today. Arthur's son, Steven Bixby, 36, had surrendered about two hours earlier.

Before the standoff, Arthur Bixby's wife went to an Abbeville apartment with another son and threatened to open fire on bystanders if the other Bixbys were harmed, authorities said.

Stewart said that situation had to be resolved before officers could move in on the Bixby home. Inside the house and the apartment, officers found anti-American literature, suicide notes and other items.

As officers approached the home after 11 p.m., Stewart said, they were fired on with "the most powerful weapons he had ever seen" in his more than 30 years in law enforcement.

"I've never seen so much force," Stewart said. It appeared Ouzts was shot by a rifle at a distance, state Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden said.

Neighbor Gene Land said Steven Bixby was angry because of state plans to widen the highway. Land said Bixby had been living there with his mother and father for more than 10 years. "Some days he was a good guy, some days he was moody," Land said.

A clash between DOT workers and someone at the Bixby house last Thursday led to the magistrate going to the home Monday, DOT officials said.