Kerrville Police Department issued a new press release on Monday, September 9, discussing more details from the September 1 shooting death of 17-year-old Tommy Luke Hranicky. According to the updated release, pictured below, the officer involved in the shooting was Sergeant Hal Degenhardt, a 15-year veteran of the police force.
According to the new release…
When Sergeant Degenhardt arrived and made contact with the suspect, the suspect was found to be armed with a knife. The suspect advanced on the Officer, who retreated and gave repeated verbal commands for the suspect to stop and drop the knife. The suspect continued to advance with the knife toward the officer and refused to comply with the officer’s commands. Sergeant Degenhardt was forced to fire his duty weapon to protect himself.
Press release dated September 9, 2019
The department went on to state that both the officer’s body camera and his dash camera were activated during the incident. In addition to the Texas Rangers’ investigation, KPD is also conducting an internal investigation into the death. The case will be referred to a grand jury once the investigation is complete.
