# Officer Down: Deputy Sheriff Frank Denzinger - [Georgetown, Indiana]



## kwflatbed

06/19/2007
*Ind. deputy fatally shot by teen*

*Officer Down: Deputy Sheriff Frank Denzinger *- [Georgetown, Indiana]

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Biographical Info*
*Age: * n/a
*Cause of Death:* Gunfire
*Additional Information:* Deputy Denzinger was a four-year veteran of the department

*Incident Details:* Deputy Denzinger was shot and killed when he and another deputy responded to a domestic disturbance call in Georgetown, Indiana.

A 15-year-old suspect ambushed both deputies with a high powered rifle as they arrived at the scene. Deputy Denzinger was transported to University Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, where he succumbed to his wounds. The other deputy was also wounded in the shooting.

*End of Watch:* Monday, June 18, 2007

*Teen kills one Ind. deputy, critically wounds another*

The Associated Press
GEORGETOWN, Ind. - A 15-year-old boy who had been arguing with his mother opened fire on deputies as they arrived at their home, killing one and critically wounding the other, authorities said. The teen was later found dead.
Floyd County Coroner Greg Balmer confirmed Tyler Dumstorf's death, but neither he nor a state police spokesman would say how the teen died. Authorities said they would provide more details at a news conference set for later Tuesday. 
State police had identified Dumstorf as the suspected shooter as they searched for the boy after the shooting Monday evening. When officers entered the home shortly after midnight, they found him dead on the floor, state police Sgt. Jerry Goodin said. 
"The whole community here should be enraged," Goodin said. "There's a lot of us who are heartbroken." 
Deputy Frank Denzinger, a four-year veteran of the sheriff's department, died hours after the shooting, Sheriff Darrell Mills said. Deputy Joel White, who has been with the department 17 months, was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday morning, the department said. 
Denzinger and White went to the home about 10 miles west of Louisville, Ky., on a report of a confrontation between the boy and his mother, sheriff's Lt. Frank Loop said. 
Loop said the boy's mother was not injured. 
Goodin said officers arrested two people as they conducted their search and investigated the shootings, but he declined to discuss how they were involved. 
"I don't have a lot of answers tonight," he said early Tuesday. "There's a lot of questions I still don't have answers to." 
Scores of officers had spent hours combing the rural subdivision and nearby woods before finding the boy dead in the home. Residents of about 25 houses were evacuated during the search. 
Goodin would not say what might have caused the confrontation or whether officers found a weapon with Dumstorf.


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## kwflatbed

*Slain Ind. deputy called "figure of humanity"*

*1,200 attend Deputy Frank Denzinger's funeral Saturday.*

The Associated Press







Tara Denzinger, walking directly behind the casket follows pallbearers from the Floyd County Police Department as they carry out the casket of Floyd County Sheriff's Deputy Frank Denzinger Saturday. (AP Photo/Brian Bohannon)

FLOYDS KNOBS, Ind. - A long procession of police officers, firefighters and other emergency personnel from Kentucky and Indiana filed into Floyd Central High School on Saturday morning to pay respects to fallen Floyd County Sheriff's Deputy Frank Denzinger.
Officers lined the hallway leading to the school's gymnasium and then slowly saluted as Denzinger's casket was wheeled in for the service.
Denzinger, a 1993 Floyd Central graduate, died hours after he and his partner, Deputy Joel White, were shot Monday night when a teenager fired a rife from his family's house as the officers spoke in the driveway with his mother.
Tyler Dumstorf fired a World War II sniper rifle from an upstairs window as the officers talked to his mother about an argument she had with him. Each deputy was struck once in the back. White, 27, returned fire but missed. He was hospitalized in serious condition after the shooting.
Dumstorf, 15, died afterward from a self-inflicted gunshot.
During Saturday's service, Floyd County Sheriff Darrell Mills talked about working an "Operation Seatbelt" with Denzinger and setting a goal of stopping four cars an hour.
"Frank would average four cars in two minutes," Mills said.
Michael Rowe, a brother-in-law of Denzinger, said he met the deputy 16 years ago, and they became "relatives by chance, but friends by choice.
"He loved to laugh. He loved to make people laugh," Rowe said. "He was the king of one-liners."
Rowe described Denzinger as a perfect uncle, who loved to play with his six nephews.
"He was a big guy, but he was a teddy bear when he got around his nephews," Rowe said. "He was a big kid. Frankie was, to me, a figure of authority and humanity."
Denzinger's wife, Tara, said before Saturday's service that she felt her husband's presence last night.
"He knows I am a strong, stubborn woman, and I will get through this," she said. "At some point, this day will fade away, and we will become more and more normal."








_Wire Services_


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