Kansas City, MO — On September 14, news outlets across Missouri ran stories of a Kansas City Police officer who was shot while patrolling a shopping center early on a Saturday morning. According to police, the officer was off-duty, wearing his police uniform and shot in the chest while moonlighting as security at the local shopping center. A lockdown and manhunt immediately ensued as cops searched for the elusive shooter. But they would never find him because he did not exist.

This week, the now-former Kansas City police officer, Kelly Sapp, 53, was charged for the incident. There never was a shooting and Sapp fabricated the entire story.

For months, despite prosecutors telling Sapp they had evidence contrary to what he was telling them about the shooting, the cop stood by his story. Eventually, however, once all the surveillance footage from the shopping center was reviewed — showed no signs of a shooting and contradicted all of his testimony — Sapp cracked.

As the Kansas City Star reports, after a lengthy investigation, Sapp told detectives, “this incident was a result of his being “in crisis” and he had “screwed up,” according to court records.

Sapp also allegedly told police investigators, “this is gonna be in the hands of Jackson County and they wanna decide whether I get punishment or not I’m perfectly fine with that,” prosecutors allege.

According to the report:

According to police, Sapp said about 1 a.m. on Sept. 14, he heard noises coming from a nearby treeline. When he went to investigate, Sapp said, he heard gunshots.

Sapp, who was dressed in his full uniform, said he retreated and radioed for help. While taking cover, Sapp said, he realized he had been shot, but the bullet hadn’t penetrated his bullet-resistant vest.

He reported he couldn’t locate the suspect.

Several officers from Kansas City and Raytown responded and secured the area to prevent the possible shooter from escaping, according to court records.

But the shooter did “escape” because he didn’t exist. After reviewing many hours of surveillance footage, police would eventually find this out.

Sapp now has a court date of May 28 where he will face down a single misdemeanor charge for filing a false report — hardly a slap on the wrist for the potential outcome of such a lie.

While cops making up fake shooting stories may seem outlandish, it is, unfortunately, not an isolated incident. In fact, a lot of other officers have been caught forwarding the false narrative about the war on cops with fake shootings.

Just last December, TFTP reported on the fabricated story of how Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputy Angel Reinosa was shot in the shoulder by a sniper as he walked from his patrol car into the station. A massive manhunt ensued as heavily armed deputies in military attire set up a perimeter and locked down the area but it would all be in vain. Reinosa was arrested in December because he made the entire thing up. Then, less than a week later, another cop in Ohio was arrested for doing the exact same thing.

On January 13, approximately 50 officers from ten different departments combed a prominently black neighborhood looking for a non-existent suspect. This swarm of cops was reportedly detaining innocent people, pulling over others, and shaking up an entire community. All of this chaos and rights violations were because Warren Police Officer Noah Linnen falsely claimed he’d been involved in a shootout with a black man in a black SUV.

We have covered so many of these stories that it is hard to keep count.

In September of 2016, police around the country spread the story and asked for prayers for one of their own who’d been shot while on duty. An investigation was launched, a dragnet conducted, the town locked down and a suspect had been brought in. However, cops and their supporters quickly found out they had been duped by their fellow officer once investigators discovered the entire story had been fabricated. In October of last year, former Jackson Police Department Officer Sherry Hall was sentenced to prison for her lies.

As TFTP reported, one cop went to the ultimate extreme to fake a war on cops and actually took his own life.

In September 2015, a massive manhunt ensued after Lt. Joe Gliniewicz was found dead 50 yards from his cruiser 15 minutes after he radioed in that he was pursuing three suspects on foot. Despite locking down the entire town, no suspects were found in the area.

The following November, it was revealed that the reason no suspects were ever found was due to the fact that Gliniewicz killed himself. In a press conference, Lake County Major Crimes Task Force commander George Filenko said, “This staged suicide was the end result of extensive criminal acts that Gliniewicz had been committing.”

Gliniewicz wasn’t alone either. Also in September 2015, a Millis, MA police department placed an entire town on lockdown after a cop claimed he’d been shot by a ‘black man.’ However, it was quickly discovered that the cop faked being shot at to cover for his reckless driving.

“We have determined that the officer’s story was fabricated. Specifically, that he fired shots at his own cruiser as a plan to concoct a story that he was fired upon,” Millis Police Sgt. William Dwyer said. “The evidence indicates the shots were not fired by a suspect, and there is no gunman at large in or around the town.”

England Police Department Sgt. David Houser faked being shot during a traffic stop in Arkansas. Another statewide manhunt was launched for a non-existent “Hispanic man.” Two weeks later, Houser caved to pressure and confessed to shooting himself.

Before that, it was reported that veteran police officer Terry Smith was shot in the back by an unknown assailant, and Black Lives Matter protesters were implicated. However, the Houston Police Department found that it was actually his partner, Gregory Hudson who shot Smith.

In September 2015, Officer Bryan Johnson crashed his police cruiser into a tree. To cover up his terrible driving, Johnson then fired several shots into his wrecked car and then radioed into the station, claiming he’d been a victim of the war on cops.  Yet another massive manhunt was launched in search of a fake shooter.

Commerce City Police Officer Kevin Lord was also arrested in 2015 after it was revealed he faked being shot at during a traffic stop. Lord claimed he was shot at close range while making a traffic stop in the 9700 block of Peoria Street. Like Reinosa, his bullet-proof vest was credited with saving his life.

Article posted with permission from Matt Agorist