A former sheriff’s deputy who falsely claimed he was shot outside the Lancaster Sheriff’s Department was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and one year probation on Friday, and ordered to pay nearly $543,000 in restitution to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) for their overwhelming response to the hoax.

Ángel Raúl Reinosa, who was a rookie officer when he said he was shot in 2019, was convicted last November of one misdemeanor count of making a false statement of a crime, but acquitted of two counts of insurance fraud.

Reinosa, now 24, reported that feu reached in the hombro standing in the parking lot of the stationin the 500 block of West Lancaster Boulevard on August 21, 2019. The reported ambush triggered the establishment of a massive containment perimeter and an exhaustive multi-hour search of an adjacent four-storey apartment complex floors.

A former Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy accused of falsely saying he was shot by a sniper was arrested on Thursday.

A nearby school was also closed as dozens of SWAT officers descended on the scene in helicopters and armored vehicles. The search of the building and its surroundings continued until approximately the following day, at 5:30 am.

On August 24, 2019, then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced that the shooting report turned out to be a hoax, claiming that Reinosa was no longer a member of the department.

“As a sheriff, I am responsible for my officers and I am ashamed and incredibly disappointed in what this officer has done,” Villanueva said at the time.

“I apologize to our community and our elected officials who supported us. During the investigation, we had suspicions about the veracity of the alleged assault, but we had to be careful before accusing an employee of making false statements.”

Sheriff’s officials told reporters that several things did not fit Reinosa’s story: no bullets were recovered from the parking lot, no cars were hit by gunfire, and numerous people in the surroundings did not hear any gunshots.

The case against Reinosa was brought about five months later.

In his closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Gregory Apt told jurors that Reinosa’s report that he was “getting shot” prompted “this huge, huge response from everyone in the sheriff’s department” and that the agents on the spot “they thought it was real”.

“There is no doubt that he was not shot, that he made it up,” the prosecutor said of the former deputy, who said “he had problems at work”.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Chief has announced that the deputy who faked a sniper attack could be fired and even face criminal charges.

“He was trying to avoid being demoted,” Apt said. “He was trying to go from zero to hero.”

Defense attorney Jesse Ruiz told the panel that his client, who was 21 at the time, felt pain, heard a noise, and associated that pain with gunshots.

“He knows what he felt… He didn’t know what it was,” Reinosa’s attorney said, telling jurors his client’s life “has been turned upside down.”

Reinosa testified in his own defense, telling the panel that he dropped to the ground after hearing two “crush” sounds, but did not see anyone shoot him.

“Do you really know what hit you?” the defense attorney asked Reinosa.

“No,” replied the accused. “I felt pain in my shoulder. I don’t know how it happened.”

Reinosa told the jury that homicide detectives investigating what happened did not believe him, but maintained that he was not lying.

Superior Court Judge Michael Garcia rejected the defense’s offer of a judicial diversion program for Reinosa, whose attorney said the defendant had a ‘clean record’ and had applied to law school .

The judge also rejected a jail request from the prosecutor, who called the defendant’s conduct “scandalous” and said he had betrayed a position of trust.

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