At approximately 1:30 a.m. Saturday, Denton Public Safety Communications received a call from a man who said he wanted to kill himself due to “problems” with a woman. Officers were at the caller’s location – 1610 E.
McKinney St. in Denton – within five minutes.
Now, the man has died and a hostage he had with him safe, according to police.
Upon arriving at the scene, authorities found a white man holding a knife against the body of a white woman. The man was physically restraining her and gripping his arm around her neck.
As the officers attempted to communicate with the man and deescalate the hostage situation, the man allegedly raised the knife several times towards the woman in a stabbing motion. Police said it eventually became clear that he would not release the hostage.
When the suspect raised the knife in a threatening manner towards the woman, one of the officers fired a round from his patrol rifle. According to police, it struck the suspect in his upper torso and the man fell to the ground with the knife in his hand.
The officer who fired the shot is a three-year veteran of the Denton Police Department and is on administrative leave pending the results of a department-mandated Internal Affairs investigation.
After the shot, authorities also used a taser to disarm the suspect and the hostage was moved to a safe location, where she was determined to be uninjured. Medics then transported the suspect to a local hospital, where he died a short time later.
“His identity is not being released at this time, pending family notification,” said police Saturday morning.
According to authorities, no officers were injured during the incident.
Texas Rangers are continuing to investigate the officer-involved shooting. Internal Affairs is conducting the concurrent administrative investigation per department policy.
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