Former Los Angeles Unified Police Department officer Jeff Stenroos was charged on March 10 with multiple felonies in connection with his making a false claim that he was shot by an unknown gunman on Jan. 19 outside El Camino High School in the San Fernando Valley.

The felony charges include perjury, filing a false police report and filing a false insurance claim, and Stenroos was also charged with a misdemeanor count of falsely reporting an emergency. The incident resulted in thousands of students being locked in schools in the surrounding area while hundreds of police officers searched the area for the gunman.

Detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide Division conducted an investigation that determined Stenroos concocted the story about being shot by an auto burglary suspect, and in fact shot himself.

“The actions of Officer Stenroos put into motion a series of events that wasted valuable department resources, negatively impacted thousands of school children and their families, and disrupted the lives of a countless number of people who were inconvenienced by the perimeter set up to catch a suspect who never existed,” LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. “Officer Stenroos deserves no leniency, and the charges he now faces are more than appropriate after what he put this city through.”

After his arrest, Stenroos posted a $20,000 bail and has since been free on bond.  He is scheduled to be arraigned on March 23. If convicted on all charges, Stenroos could be sentenced to up to five years in state prison.