A man and his 18-year-old son were shot and killed by a plainclothes officers who saw the pair aiming guns at someone across a street, police in Baltimore said.

Matthew V. Wood Jr, 43, and his son Kimani Johnson, 18, were identified at a news conference on Friday.

It is unclear who the men were targeting but they were heading toward a large group and armed with a semi-automatic rifle, loaded with 25 rounds, and a handgun, loaded with seven rounds.

Baltimore Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith said previously that special operations unit officers were on patrol in an unmarked car Thursday when they happened upon the men.

Matthew V. Wood Jr (left), 43, and his son Kimani Johnson (right), 18, were shot and killed by police on Thursday. Both men were armed with guns, including a semi-automatic rifle loaded with 25 rounds

The department identified the officers as Officer Norman Jones, a two-year veteran, and Sergeant Joseph Wiczulis, an eight-year veteran.

Smith said Jones is black and Wiczulis is white. Wood and Johnson were black.

Wiczulis was a part of two fatal shootings since 2010 not including Thursday's.

In one incident he shot a man who had shot two officers.

Jones and Wiczulis, and a third officer who did not fire, have been placed on administrative leave, which is routine following a fatal shooting.

Police fired 56 rounds at Wood and Johnson to bring the father and son down, according to the Baltimore Sun. The paper said neither father nor son fired a shot.

'If not for the The Balitmore Police Department yesterday, we could have had a mass shooting on our hands, where several innocent lives could have easily been taken.

'We don't run from bad guys with guns. We engage them. We fired 56 rounds yesterday until this threat was eliminated,' Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said at a news conference.

Baltimore police held a press conference on Friday where they identified the men as father and son and displayed the weaponry the men were brandishing (pictured)

Police showed off the pink rifle the men were armed with at Friday's conference.

The two men were suspected of being members of a gang called the Black Guerrilla Family, according to the Baltimore Sun.

A convicted member of the gang was shot on Wednesday. It is not known if the men were planning a retaliation.

Both Wood and Johnson had previous gun charges, and the 18-year-old Johnson was out of jail on a $100,000 bond and awaiting trial for a handgun charge.

Wood was on probation after receiving a sentence of time served, about three months, in October for a gun charge, the paper reported.

The state's attorney's office declined to comment on its investigation of the case.