It was one year ago today when a California sheriff’s deputy claimed that he had been “ambushed” in a drive-by shooting as he was walking back to his patrol car after relieving himself on the side of a dark road, screaming into his radio, “shots fired! shots fired!”,
But now the deputy has been arrested for fabricating the shooting.
Turns out, Santa Clara sheriff’s deputy Sukhdeep Gill had fired the shots himself – which is not as uncommon as one would think – including one shot into his bulletproof vest which destroyed the body camera he was wearing on his chest, making it impossible to review the footage.
He also fired several shots at his patrol car and claimed he fired two shots at the car which had attacked him describing it as a silver sedan that had turned off its lights before somebody opened fire from the passenger seat.
But as we’ve seen several times in the past, his story did not add up which is why he is now facing charges of felony vandalism and falsely reporting a crime, a misdemeanor.
According to a press release from the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office:
“This case is bewildering and deeply disappointing,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. “Deputy Gill’s actions abused the trust of his fellow officers and diverted public safety resources away from protecting the community to investigate a made-up crime.”
At approximately 10:32 p.m., on January 31, 2020, the deputy hit the emergency broadcast button on his department issued radio and broadcast “Shots fired! Shots fired!” Officers responded from the Sheriff’s Office as well as the San Jose, Morgan Hill, and Gilroy police departments.
The deputy told the first officer on scene that he had parked on the dirt shoulder to urinate during a routine patrol. While walking back towards the driver side of his patrol car he was shot at by the passenger in a silver sedan that had turned off its lights as it approached him. The deputy said he fired two shots towards the suspect vehicle, which fled on Uvas Road.
An investigation found evidence, including ballistics, that exposed serious discrepancies in the deputy’s account.
Below are just a few of the stories we’ve written over the years of cops getting arrested for fabricating ambushes on themselves.
In September 2020, a Louisiana cop named John Michael Goulart Jr. was arrested two days after fabricating a similar tale of an ambush after his actions were apparently caught on video which has not been released.
In August 2019, it was an Alabama cop named Keith Buchanan who was arrested for fabricating his own ambush in a similar tale of being attacked on the side of a dark road, sparking a manhunt involving several law enforcement agencies.
Later that month, a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy named Angel Reinosa was arrested for claiming he was ambushed by a sniper while unloading his patrol car in front of the station, sparking another manhunt.
But investigators became suspicious after he showed up to the emergency room with holes in his shirt but no visible bullet wounds. The 21-year-old deputy later admitted to cutting up the shirt to make it look as if he had been shot.
And who can forget the 2015 case of an Illinois cop named Joe Gliniewicz who took his own life after claiming on the radio he had been ambushed which sparked another ambush?
It was only after a month of hyping the “war on cops” including honoring Gliniewicz as a hero in a funeral procession that drew hundreds of people to pay their respects that they finally admitted he had taken his own life.
But then it was revealed that investigators has suspected all along he had faked his own ambush but chose to go with the story anyway.
Watch a video of the funeral procession below that was uploaded by a cop containing audio from the late radio broadcaster Paul Harvey reciting his famous speech titled “Policeman.”
Please help support the 2021 PINAC Brady List Project where we plan to build a database of bad cops.
