Cops: Indiana Teen Shoots Cops, Kills 1

A 15-year-old boy was found dead in his home early Tuesday after he opened fire on two sheriff's deputies, fatally wounding one and leaving the other seriously hurt, authorities said.

The deputies had gone to the southern Indiana home Monday evening to investigate a confrontation between the teen and his mother, police said. After the deputies were shot, scores of officers spent hours after nightfall combing the rural subdivision and the surrounding woods seeking the boy they identified as Tyler Dumstorf.

Officers found Dumstorf's body on the floor of the home shortly after midnight, state police Sgt. Jerry Goodin said. Floyd County Coroner Greg Balmer confirmed Dumstorf's death, but neither he nor a state police spokesman would say how the teen died.

"The whole community here should be enraged," Goodin said of the shootings. "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, Floyd County Sheriff Darrell Mills said. Deputy Joel White, who has been with the department 17 months, was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday morning, the sheriff's department said.

Goodin said officers arrested two people during their search for Dumstorf but declined to discuss how they were involved.

"There's a lot of questions I still don't have answers to," Goodin said early Tuesday.

The two deputies were not able to defend themselves, said a neighbor who saw the shooting but requested anonymity because of safety concerns before Dumstorf was found dead.

"No one was ready for it," he told The Associated Press. "The cops didn't have a chance to pull their guns."

The neighbor said after the boy shot at the deputies, he also fired at his mother but missed. Sheriff's Lt. Frank Loop said the boy's mother was not injured.

The neighbor said Dumstorf's mother had recently caught him with marijuana and that the teen tried to kill himself because of it.

Goodin would not say what might have caused the confrontation or whether officers found a weapon with Dumstorf. Residents were evacuated from about 25 homes in the area 10 miles west of Louisville, Ky., but allowed to return after police found the teen's body.

"People can come back to their homes and feel safe again," Goodin said.