At least six cops fabricated ambushes against themselves this year in an apparent attempt to capitalize on the mythical War on Police.
The most famous case, of course, was the drawn-out drama of Fox Lake Police Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz from Illinois in September, who police initially claimed was killed in the line of duty, launching a huge manhunt and sparking a national media frenzy before honoring him with a hero’s funeral attended by thousands of cops from around the country.
Only to finally admit the man they proclaimed as a saint who would stop at nothing to help the community was actually a scoundrel who would stop at nothing to steal from the community.
But Gliniewicz is hardly alone in fabricating his own attack. The only thing he did differently was kill himself to avoid having to deal with an investigation that was about to expose him as a fraud after having stolen tens of thousands of dollars from the department’s Explorer youth program.
The other cops who fabricated attacks did not go as far as taking their own lives, so they apparently had their own agendas, perhaps to be honored as heroes or to collect disability or generate sympathy.
Or most likely, they are just compulsive liars who believe they are above the law, never once thinking that anybody would question their integrity.
And at first, nobody did question their integrity because the “attacks” against them sparked manhunts and news frenzies and outpourings of sympathy from citizens who apparently believe their ticket to heaven lies in how deeply they worship police.
We first wrote about these fabricated stories in September when the nation was still believing that Gliniewicz was a hero who only wanted to get home to his family when he was killed in the line of duty.
At the time, there were only three cops who had proven to fabricate their own attacks, including Gliniewicz because it was already obvious to many of us, even though they refused to officially admit it until a month later.
But now we have found three more officers to add to the list, making it a total of six cops who have fabricated attacks against themselves this year.
- Millis police officer Bryan Johnson in Massachusetts: On September 2, 2015, Millis police officer Bryan Johnson was driving down the street when a white man in another car opened fire, causing the officer to crash into a tree, engulfing the car in flames as he stood outside firing back at the culprit. But it didn’t take long for investigators to determine he fabricated the incident, which led to him losing his job and criminal charges of malicious destruction of property, witness intimidation, unlawful discharge of a firearm and providing false information. Last week, he was indicted on additional charges of calling in a bomb threat to a local middle school the morning of his fake attack. He has pleaded not guilty to the first set of charges and is still awaiting a hearing on the bomb threat charges.
- Commerce City police officer Kevin Lord in Colorado: On November 8, 2015, Commerce City police officer Kevin Lord reported that he was shot by a “white man in his late 40s/early 50s, with brown hair, thin build, wearing glasses and a black and white scarf around his neck.” A Blue Alert was issued for a Nissan Pathfinder and a $20,000 reward was offered to information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect. But less than a week later, Commerce City police announced that they had arrested Lord for fabricating his own shooting. And now he is suspected for fabricating another shooting in 2013 where he received a Purple Heart award and more than $10,000 for injury leave while he stayed home for more than a month.
Kevin Lord and the sketch of the imaginary man who attacked him.
- England police officer David Houser in Arkansas: On October 24, 2015, England police officer David Houser reported that he was ambushed by a Hispanic man who pointed a gun at him as he sat in his patrol car, but he managed to push the gun away where it only struck him in the bulletproof vest. The two men exchanged gunfire before the man escaped, sparking a statewide manhunt. And the region remained gripped in fear as his son played along with the narrative. But less than two weeks later, Houser turned himself in on a felony charge of filing a police report and was quickly released on bond.
- Warren County sheriff’s deputy Linkee Carrillo in Missouri: On January 31, 2015, Warren County sheriff’s deputy Linkee Carrillo claimed he was ambushed by three men while sitting in his patrol car in a state forest. But it didn’t take long for investigators to determine he made the story up. However, at the time, they defended his actions, saying he was an army combat veteran suffering from PTSD. But then that turned out to be a lie as well when investigators discovered that although he had served in the army, he had never been in combat, but claimed to have done so by buying medals, including a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He even bragged on Facebook that he had published a book on his combat experiences as you can see in the screenshots below. Now he is facing felony and misdemeanor charges.
- Houston police officer Terry Smith in Texas: On June 9, 2015, Houston motorcycle police officer Terry Smith was conducting a traffic stop when he was shot in the back, leading to the local police union vice president to complain about the war on police, sparking the obligatory manhunt and media frenzy. But in September, it was reported that Smith was most likely shot by his cop buddy, METRO police officer Gregory Hudson, who was placed on desk duty. The case, of course, remains under investigation.
We suspect there are others out there that have just not been confirmed yet, but we have our eyes on those cases.
One giveaway is how a department ceases to discuss the ambush immediately after the initial report, acting as if it never took place, even though the suspects are supposedly still at large and every officer’s life is supposedly still in danger.
That just goes against everything we know about police.
UPDATE: We forgot to include the fabricated ambush story from two Connecticut police officers who were arrested in October for shooting up one of their cars in August, then claiming somebody else had done it. Both James Martin and Daniel Ehret are apparently still on paid administrative leave from the Darien Police Department.
The post Eight American Police Officers Fabricated Their Own Shootings This Year appeared first on PINAC.