Former 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.