UPDATE: A helpful reader emails to point out another phantom traffic stop shooting that triggered a manhunt by a San Antonio police officer in October. At least the SA cop didn't shoot himself.A Tyler County Sheriff’s deputy who said he had been shot during a traffic stop early this month has been fired after he confessed that he shot himself and fabricated the traffic stop story.
In a release from the sheriff’s department, Deputy Gary Parks was relieved from his duty with the department after confessing Thursday, Dec. 21 that he lied about being shot in Hillister after making a traffic stop.
Parks, a 12-year veteran with the sheriff’s department, originally told investigators he had been shot twice after making a traffic stop in Hillister. He gave police a description of the suspect and authorites in a four-county area searched for the assaialant.
Parks may now be facing criminal charges by the Tyler County District Attorney’s office for filing a false police report.
NUTHER UPDATE: Radley Balko says, "In raids I've researched in which a SWAT officer is shot, about half the time the bullet comes not from the suspect, but from another officer, or from the wounded cop himself." One wonders, how many of those make up suspects to blame?
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7 comments:
My money says he was playing with his gun -- a huge no-no -- and the gun was a double-action-only auto. The first shot was caused by inadvertent and unwitting trigger pressure. It startled him so badly that he clenched his hands, resulting in a second trigger-pull, causing the second shot.
The root cause? The absence of a responsible adult.
"Life is hard, but life is harder when you're dumb."
- Austin Lounge Lizards
they shouldn't have fired him.they should've put him back in his car on patrol-without a weapon.that would've given him time to ponder the circumstances that lieing gets you in.as a patrolman you have to weigh everything thats said to you at the spur of the moment and decide whether it's valid or not.thats how he decided to lie;at the spur of the moment with 2 gunshot wounds.he'll probably end up as a cop again in another department,here in this state or another.just remember to look for a cop with a limp
well, it doesn't really matter how it happened. Just hope it was a accident with no intent.
Gary is now a Chester native known to limp and yell for. ''Mr Dillon"
Hi,
Ive known and worked with Gary for years and believe me this was a real shock to all the officers here.I am in no way condoning what Gary did but we just recenrly found out that he has a bleed in his head and the Dr's say there appears to be a mass {tumor} of some type in his brain.Gary was always a fantastic officer that everyone loved working with so lets please keep him in our prayers and hope that everything works out for him.
Wasn't there a show about this guy!!!! What was it, oh yeah, Barney Fife. He could keep his weapon, just make him carry his bullet in his pocket. hehe
Ex-Woodpilean!!!!!
"Ive known and worked with Gary for years and believe me this was a real shock to all the officers here.I am in no way condoning what Gary did but we just recenrly found out that he has a bleed in his head and the Dr's say there appears to be a mass {tumor} of some type in his brain.Gary was always a fantastic officer that everyone loved working with so lets please keep him in our prayers and hope that everything works out for him."
Thank you for the kind words. Gary Parks is my father, and yes, there was a bleed in his head.
He'd been suffering seizures and other health problems for years before this. While he knows he shot himself, he can not remember why he did or or what he was thinking as he did it.
He is seeking various forms of treatment is finally growing much healthier physically and mentally.
For those making cruel and 'funny' comments when they don't even know the whole story, well, they'll find a cure for stupidity someday.
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