Denton police fatally shoot UNT student armed with cleaver, frying pan; officer stabbed
A Denton police officer fatally shot a man armed with a frying pan and a cleaver who charged at officers early Tuesday morning at an apartment complex that serves as off-campus housing for college students, police said.
One officer was stabbed in the shoulder during the incident, police said, but his injuries weren’t life-threatening and he was released from the hospital after treatment.
Police didn’t release the name of the man who was killed, pending notification of his family.
Roommates of the man who was killed told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Denton Record-Chronicle that he was a 23-year-old student at the University of North Texas whose behavior had become “erratic” in the past week after he was in a car accident.
Kenton Nelson, 48, said he had shared an apartment with the younger man for about a year and he was “like one of my kids.”
Early Tuesday morning, another one of their roommates woke up and saw the student had barricaded a hallway in their apartment with furniture, Nelson said. He also had covered up windows with blankets and clothes, and unplugged light fixtures because he said he didn’t want there to be any light. Then he went outside the apartment and started banging on doors and breaking lights in a hallway, Nelson said.
“From there, I guess, the police were called, and the rest was downhill,” he said.
Nelson learned through a friend that the young man had been in a bad wreck. He was away from the apartment for days, but when he came back one day, “he was very distant and just didn’t want to talk,” Nelson told the Star-Telegram. “I was like, ‘Are you all right?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, man, just nobody cares about me.’”
“He went from normal, ‘Hey, how you doing,’ to just everywhere, to just all over the place, eyes large and so forth, just not functional,” Nelson told the Denton Record-Chronicle. “Up until last weekend, very coherent, real good guy. He’d cook for you, come check on you, see if you need anything. Worked hard, worked two jobs and then ... last weekend something occurred and changed all that.”
After his roommate’s death, “I’m hurt,” Nelson said. “That’s all I can say.”
Denton police spokeswoman Allison Beckwith said, “We don’t know much about the decedent at this point, but what we do know is this behavior today was potentially out of character for him.”
Taser was ineffective before shooting, police say
Five officers were dispatched around 3 a.m. Tuesday to the Forum at Denton Station student apartments at 201 Inman St., where multiple 911 callers had reported a man was banging on apartment doors and asking people to open them, and shattering all the light fixtures in a hallway with a frying pan, police said. When officers arrived, some stood at the base of a main staircase while another obtained information from a caller.
The man reportedly began moving down the stairs toward the officers. Officers saw he had a meat cleaver, a frying pan, and possibly a knife in his hands, and they gave him loud instructions to drop the weapons, police said. Officers tried to talk with the man but described him as incoherent, police said.
The man continued advancing toward officers, police said, and an officer deployed his Taser. The Taser reportedly struck the man, causing him to fall, but he got back up.
Officers tried a second time to stun the man with a Taser, Denton Police Chief Frank Dixon said at a news conference Tuesday morning. At that point, the man charged at officers, he said.
One officer then fired his gun multiple times and the man fell to the ground, police said. Officers began performing first aid and called for Denton Fire/Rescue to respond.
At that time, police said, officers learned one officer had been stabbed by the suspect during the struggle.
The suspect and the injured officer were taken to a hospital, where the suspect was pronounced dead and the officer was admitted in stable condition, police said.
Dixon said officers followed their training and tried to de-escalate the situation.
“I want to stress to you that officers every day come to work in this profession hoping to get home, but more importantly hoping that everybody they interact with get home as well, and I think that played out in this occasion,” Dixon said at the news conference.
The officer who shot the man is a six-year veteran of the department, and the injured officer is new to Denton but has more than 10 years of previous law enforcement experience, police said. Their names haven’t been released.
Investigating ‘a tragedy’
The Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting, which is standard protocol with an officer-involved shooting, police said. The internal affairs division of the Denton Police Department is also conducting an administrative investigation.
The officer who shot the man will be placed on administrative duty, which is standard practice, police said.
Authorities also will investigate whether the suspect was having a mental health crisis, Dixon said.
“This isn’t just a tragedy for law enforcement. It’s also a tragedy for the young man that is no longer with us,” Dixon said at the news conference. “Any time that a life is taken, no matter the circumstance, is tragic, and we don’t want it to happen.”
Residents of the complex told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the apartments are off-campus housing for local college students.
Management at the apartment complex released a statement saying, “This morning we learned of a police-involved incident at Forum at Denton Station, which resulted in the death of a resident who was reportedly exhibiting erratic behavior. Police have confirmed this was an isolated incident and there is no ongoing threat to residents. We are currently working with authorities to gather additional information. We are deeply saddened by this tragic event and our sincerest condolences go to the family and friends of the deceased.”
Madison Malmstrom, a University of North Texas senior, lives in the building where the incident happened. She told the Star-Telegram she was trying to get to sleep around 3 a.m. when she heard what sounded like a gunshot. “I was like, ‘Oh, OK, hope that’s a firework, but it’s probably not,’” she said.
She then heard “loud and angry” arguing and, within about 30 seconds, heard what sounded like two more gunshots. She came together with her roommate, who told her she could hear arguing, too. They saw police arrive within about one or two minutes.
Outside of her balcony, Malmstrom, 23, could see medics load a man into an ambulance before more police arrived. They taped off an area surrounding the outdoor staircase where the man was shot.
This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 7:38 AM with the headline "Denton police fatally shoot UNT student armed with cleaver, frying pan; officer stabbed."
