The hunt was launched after a deputy claimed he was hit by sniper fire in the parking lot from an adjacent apartment building.
According to ABCnews 21 year old Angel Reinosa, who is still a trainee with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lancaster station, said he had been shot in the shoulder of his bulletproof vest while making his way to his car Wednesday. He announced over his radio in dramatic fashion he had been shot by someone in the apartment building next to the parking lot.
An LA County sheriff’s deputy admitted he lied about being shot by a sniper pic.twitter.com/gkbaYr5Pri
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 26, 2019
FoxNews reports that Reinosa eventually admitted making up the story and using a knife to cut the two holes in his shirt, Wegener said.
Reinosa has been relieved of his duties and could face charges for filing a false report about a crime, officials said. He didn’t explain his motive for the fabrication, Wegener said.
Reinosa has been with the LA County Sheriff’s Department for a year and joined the Lancaster station in May for patrol training.
Deputies searched through the night for the sniper inside the block-long, four-story structure with many windows that overlook the sheriff’s facility in downtown Lancaster, a desert city of about 160,000 people north of Los Angeles.
