 A former Millis police officer — indicted last week for allegedly making a hoax bomb threat and faking a shootout — was found dead in his home before dawn on Thanksgiving Day, authorities said. Bryan Johnson, 24, was found at about 3:30 a.m. by a resident of his home, who called police, authorities said. There were no signs of foul play and the death is not currently being investigated as a homicide, a spokeswoman for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said. Prosecutors said there were no signs of foul play and his death is not considered suspicious. Investigators say Johnson made up a claim in September that a gunman fired at his cruiser before it crashed into a tree and caught on fire. A grand jury indicted him Nov. 19 and he was on home confinement monitored by a GPS device, according to court records.
– A sad end to a strange story: Bryan Johnson, a former police officer accused of calling in a bomb threat and faking a shootout earlier this year, was found dead in his Millis, Mass., home Thanksgiving morning—and authorities believe he died by his own hand, USA Today reports. The 24-year-old faced a potential sentence of more than 40 years in prison over the bizarre events of Sept. 2, when he allegedly fired his personal firearm into his own cruiser and told dispatchers a man in a pickup truck had shot at him and fled, reports the Boston Herald. Prosecutors say Johnson, whose vehicle was found burning and crashed into a tree, called in a bomb threat to a local school the same day. The twin hoaxes caused the Boston-area town to be put on lockdown for hours during a huge manhunt, CBS reports. Johnson, a police dispatcher who worked part-time as an officer, was fired after authorities decided there had been a hoax. He was indicted on six charges last week and, according to court records seen by USA Today, was on home confinement at the time of his death. (An Illinois police officer tried to hire a hit man before he staged his own death.)