police officer accused of shootout hoax found dead

A former part-time Massachusetts police officer
accused of shooting up his own patrol
cruiser and calling in a hoax bomb threat has
died after apparently committing suicide.
Bryan Johnson, 24, was found dead early
Thanksgiving morning in his Millis, Mass. home,
the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said.
Prosecutors said there were no signs of foul play
and his death is not considered suspicious.
Johnson faced six charges stemming from a Sept.
2, 2015, incident in which he said he was
attacked by a gunman who shot up his cruiser
and fled. Johnson’s cruiser was found crashed
into a tree and on fire, and authorities launched a
massive search to find the reported gunman.
But within hours, police decided it was all a hoax,
as was a bomb threat called into a local school.
Johnson, who was fired, was free pending a
future court appearance. A grand jury indicted
him Nov. 19 and he was on home confinement
monitored by a GPS device, according to court
records.
According to prosecutors, Johnson, a police
dispatcher who also worked part-time as an
officer, fired a personal firearm into the cruiser in
a remote area of the town, drove a little further
before crashing into a tree and getting out of the
vehicle, which then burst into flames.
Prosecutors said Johnson told dispatchers that
he’d come under fire from an unknown white man
in a maroon pickup truck that had fled the area
toward the neighboring town of Medfield.