As midnight rolled around last night, a police car with officers Jay Jankowski and Michelle Herczeg pulled into the rear lot of the Grand Hotel Dallas, just off LBJ Freeway, where they saw an idling truck. They thought the truck had been stolen, police say, so they went to investigate.
Jankowski went to the driver's side window, and Herczeg the passenger's. She tapped on the window, police say, and noticed that Terence Michael Groessel was pointing a gun at her partner. "Gun!" She shouted.
"Both officers immediately retreated toward their squad car and began firing their weapons at Groessel," a police spokesman said at a press conference Thursday.
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While the officers took cover behind their car, police say, Groessel stuck his arm out the window. It looked like he was pointing the gun at the officers, police say. After a few minutes had passed, the officers heard a single gun shot come from the truck's cab.
The medical examiner announced Groessel died from shooting himself in the head, police say. He also had two gun shot wounds in his shoulder "likely from the officers," the spokesman said, "but neither would have resulted in his death."
Groessel was convicted of sexual assault of a child in 1995, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety's sex offender registry. He served five years in prison. He'd stayed at the hotel for a few weeks, police say.
This post has been updated to reflect more up-to-date information from the police.
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