The hoax led to the closing of the public schools and a massive manhunt. However, investigators eventually took a closer look at the bullets and the bullet holes and focused their attention on the full-time dispatcher and a part-time officer.
The officer claimed that a gunman in a pickup truck shot at the cruiser, caused it to crash and catch fire. The police announced that due to interviews and “as a result of all other evidence, we have determined that the officer’s story was fabricated . . . specifically, that he fired shots into his own cruiser as part of a plan to concoct a story that he was fired upon. The evidence indicates that the shots were not fired by a suspect. And there was no gunman at large in or around the town.’’
The officer has only been with the department for a year and half. The question now is how much of a sentence he will face. He could be charged with a false police report, wanton destruction of public property, criminal hoax, and other charges. That could stack up into some serious time.
What is bizarre is that the ballistics only found bullets from the officer’s own gun. What did he think was going to happen? Clearly the bullets would be tested and run through the Integrated Ballistics Identification System, or IBIS, to see if the weapon was used in other crimes. I simply cannot imagine the rationale. It is not clear if the officer had an accident and was trying to cover it up or whether this was a sad effort at notoriety. Either way, it will now likely cost him both his job and his liberty.