Henderson Police
A screen grab from dash-cam footage shows Henderson Police confronting a man with a knife, Aug. 1, 2020.
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020 | 8:41 p.m.
A Henderson Police officer repeatedly pleaded with a barefoot man who showed up on a residential driveway early Aug. 1, wielding a butcher knife: “Sir, please stay back, don’t come closer, please. Sir, I don’t want to shoot you. Please don’t come this way.”
But a stumbling and disoriented Ricky Charles Hamrick Jr. wasn't complying. He would get up, sit down, drop the knife and pick it up again.
One of the times he dropped the knife, the officer discharged his stun gun, briefly knocking Hamrick to the ground, according to body-camera and dash-cam footage made public Wednesday.
As officers were trying to get him into custody, Hamrick picked up the knife again, prompting two of them to fire a half-dozen rounds.
Hamrick is expected to recover, while Sgt. Charles Hedrick and Officer Lane Stringham were placed on routine paid leave, police said.
A resident summoned police about 4:30 a.m. to the front of her house in the 400 block of Box Elder Way, near Pacific Avenue and Van Wagenen Street, said Henderson Police Deputy Chief Michael Denning in a video release.
In 911 recordings, the woman tells an operator that a stranger had approached her house barefoot and had fallen in her driveway. He seemed to need help but was brandishing a knife, she said.
A barking dog can be heard throughout the conversation.
Officers showed up to find Hamrick on the ground. One of the officers who opened fire can be heard pleading with him for a few minutes, telling him not to get close or he would be shot.
Hamrick ignored every command, Denning said. Police recovered a kitchen knife with an 8-inch blade.
The investigation is ongoing, Denning said.
