Cop told bizarre lie about being shot in shoulder by sniper
Angel Reinosa, a 21-year-old rookie cop, admitted he cut holes in his shirt to make it look like he got shot.
A police officer has been fired after he falsely claimed he was shot in the shoulder by a sniper.
Angel Reinosa, a 21-year-old trainee with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, sparked a costly manhunt when he said he was shot in his bulletproof vest on Wednesday in Lancaster, California.
Reinosa made a dramatic radio announcement that he had been shot in a parking lot as he walked to his car – but has since admitted he made the whole incident up.
The lie triggered a mass panic as authorities mobilized a wide-scale operation to find the shooter, which even saw a helicopter with a police sniper patrolling the area.
Los Angeles County Homicide Captain Kent Wegener said that the Reinosa’s call was completely fabricated during a press conference on Saturday.
Wegener said: ‘Reinosa admitted he was not shot at as he previously claimed.’
‘He also told investigators he had caused the holes in his uniform by cutting it. There was no sniper, no shots fired and no gunshot injury sustained to his shoulder.’
According to Wegener, Reinosa did give any reason for his false claim.
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‘Much of his statement was self-serving, didn’t make a whole lot of sense,’ Wegener said.
The district attorney’s office will now determine if charges will be filed against Reinosa, which ‘could start with false report of an emergency,’ Wegener said.
He continued: ‘There were several things that were curious. There was no ballistic evidence in the parking lot at all. No bullet was recovered.’
After the original reports of the shooting, Lancaster Mayor Res Paris held a press conference and said: ‘The only reason that deputy (Reinosa) is alive is because he had his vest on.’
Parris told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday that authorities told him that Reinosa had been struggling through a probationary training period.
According to Parris, Reinosa ‘was not advancing through the training program at an adequate pace.’