MORGAN HILL, Calif. â A San Francisco Bay Area deputy who said a gunman ambushed him last year and his body camera stopped the bullet was arrested Jan. 29 on suspicion of felony vandalism and filing a false police report.
Santa Clara County sheriffâs Deputy Sukhdeep Gill lied when he told officials that a car pulled up while he was on patrol in Morgan Hill the night of Jan. 31, 2020, and someone inside opened fire, striking his body camera, Sgt. Michael Low, a sheriffâs department spokesman, said in a statement.
âAfter conducting an extensive investigation and looking into all of the evidence according to county protocols, sheriffâs detectives believed that the evidence suggested that the shooting did not occur as reported and was fabricated,â Low said.
His police vehicle had also been shot by three bullets.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Gill told authorities at the time that he had fired back at the car as it sped away.
He was on a routine patrol along a rural mountain road in the foothills of unincorporated Morgan Hill, California, at the time.
Gill was placed on leave following the incident.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen did not specify what parts of Gill’s story were fake but said ballistics and other evidence revealed inconsistencies.
Gill was not wounded in the shooting while the single bullet pierced his body camera.
A sheriff's deputy in Santa Clara County has been arrested and accused of fabricating a hate-crime incident last January in which he claimed to have been shot at by suspects in a passing vehicle on a remote road.