A Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department officer who claimed that an armed assailant had shot him while he was on patrol near a school in Woodland Hills on Jan. 19 has been charged with filing a false police report after investigators determined he fabricated the story.

In addition to facing the felony charge, officer Jeff Stenroos was fired from the police department. Stenroos has reportedly claimed he shot himself and concocted the story, but police officials are not commenting on the claim, pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation. Police have also not released any information about Stenroos’ motive.

Approximately 300 officers from the Los Angeles Police Department responded to the incident near El Camino High school. Thousands of students were held for hours at schools in the surrounding area while police searched for the gunman. The LAPD launched an extensive investigation, prior to Stenroos’ disclosure that he lied about the shooting. Detectives followed up on more than 350 leads, conducted a number of neighborhood canvasses, made hundreds of community contacts and distributed thousands of Community Alert Notices to gather leads in the case. Paul M. Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, called Stenroos a “disgrace to his badge.”

“The law enforcement community is disgusted upon learning that Mr. Stenroos filed a false police report and apparently may have shot himself,” Weber said in a statement. “His lies set into motion the largest search for a suspect in recent history and inconvenienced thousands of people for hours. While Mr. Stenroos is a disgrace to the badge, his individual and dangerous actions should not reflect on the hard working men and women in law enforcement.”