L.A. school officer faked shooting story, LAPD says

[n2doc]

By Joel Rubin and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times
January 28, 2011

A Los Angeles school police officer who said he was shot by an attacker last week, prompting a manhunt that shut down a large swath of Woodland Hills, has been arrested on suspicion of concocting the story, authorities said Thursday night.

The startling revelation came at a hastily called news conference by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who said detectives became suspicious about the officer's story as they investigated the case.

A terse Beck said Los Angeles School Police Department Officer Jeff Stenroos had been booked on a felony charge of filing a false police report. He declined to elaborate further on the case, which the head of the Los Angeles Police Protective League called an "embarrassment to law enforcement."


Police had said Stenroos was shot in the chest Jan. 19 after he confronted a man who was attempting to break into vehicles near the eastern boundary of the El Camino Real High School campus. Stenroos' bulletproof vest absorbed the impact of a single gunshot, which Los Angeles Police Department officials said could easily have killed the officer.

more
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-school-shooting-20110128,0,6106415.story

[Tippy]

1. What makes people do this? While the police were looking

the shooter real crimes could have been taking place....I don't know why the officer did what he did but one thing is he should be removed immediately from his job.....

[Iggo]

2. 'Emarassment to law enforcement'?

Fuck you, Beck.

How many innocent suspects did you guys...um, rough up...before you found out about this "embarassment to law enforcement."

And here's my favorite part:

--- Although many in the community expressed frustration and anger at the inconvenience caused by the size and length of the operation, LAPD officials defended the decision as necessary to protect the public from a suspect who was believed to have shot an armed officer. They noted that the incident was especially serious because it involved an attack against a fellow law enforcement officer. ---

See that? It's more serious because it's oneoftheirown. It'd be less serious if it was one of us. Nice, huh?