Medical examiner identifies 28-year-old man fatally shot by Denton police officer
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the man who was fatally shot Saturday by a Denton police officer.
David Christopher Chernosky, 28, of Sanger, died from a gunshot wound to the chest, the medical examiner reported.
Police said Chernosky, armed with a knife, held a woman hostage in a neck restraint.
The shooting occurred at The Vibe Apartments, at 1610 E. McKinney St.
Denton police said they responded to the apartment complex about 1:30 a.m. after they received a call from a man who reported he wanted to kill himself due to “problems” with a woman. Upon arrival, officers found Chernosky holding a woman hostage near a courtyard.
After a few minutes of negotiations, Chernosky began to raise the knife toward the woman’s body, “almost in a stabbing motion several times,” Denton Police Chief Frank Dixon said. “At one point, as the knife was being raised, we had one officer fire one round from his patrol rifle, striking the subject in his upper torso,” the chief said.
The hostage and officers were not injured in the incident.
The officer who fired his weapon is a three-year veteran of the Denton Police Department and is on administrative leave, pending the conclusion of the investigation.
This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 6:51 AM.
