45 Years Later, Montgomery Twp Officer's Sacrifice Remembered

MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP, PA — This past Saturday marked 45 years to the day that a local police officer was killed in the line of duty by a suspect using the officer's own service weapon.

Patrolman David T. Hancock, of the Montgomery Township Police Department, died in the line of duty on Dec. 11, 1976.

Hancock was shot and killed after responding to a silent alarm at the J.C. Penny department store under construction at the soon-to-be-opened Montogomery Mall, according to information on the Officer Down Memorial Page website.

He was arresting a 19-year-old suspect at the time. The man was able to grab a hold of Hancock's gun and shoot the officer in the head with it.

Hancock was an 11-year member of the police force at the time of his death.

Hancock's killer, Larry Philips of Philadelphia, was ultimately arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. He also received additional prison time for two burglaries and drug possession charges, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page information.

The page says that Philips was still incarcerated at the Albion State Correctional Institution in Erie County as 2021.

According to a December 2018 North Penn Now article, Hancock was the first and only officer with Montgomery Township to have been killed in the line of duty.

Montgomery Township displays a monument in Hancock's honor in front of the township municipal complex.

According to a previous story in Patch, Philips, the suspect, was taken into custody two days after the killing. The story says that Montgomery Mall was set to open a month after the killing occurred.