School Bomb Threat Added to Charges Against Cop Who Fabricated Shooting

Above: Former Millis Police Officer Bryan Johnson pleads not guilty to a host of charges in SeptemberPhoto courtesy of WHDH, Channel 7 News.

A former Millis Police officer who allegedly fabricated being shot at, prompting a needless manhunt, has also been charged with threatening to bomb a school, Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey announced.

Bryan Johnson, 24, of Millis, allegedly phoned in a bomb threat to Millis High School on the same day he reportedly fabricated a shootout with a non-existent suspect, and shot his own police cruiser before crashing it off Forest Road in Millis, where it then caught fire.

Johnson allegedly told his fellow officers that a man in a maroon pickup truck had fired the shots before speeding away. At the time, he was believed to be hiding in the woods surrounding the area. The report prompted a massive manhunt, with local departments and state police searching Millis, Medfield and Norfolk with dozens of cruisers, ATVs and a helicopter. Area residents were ordered to shelter in place, leaving a community terrified that a gunman was on the loose.

The part-time officer, who has since been fired, is charged with willful communication of a bomb threat to a school inaddition to the initial charges of misleading a criminal investigation, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, making a false police report, willful and malicious destruction of property above $250 (for damage to cruiser windshield by shooting firearm into it), and wanton destruction of property above $250 (for damage to cruiser from crashing and burning).

Assistant District Attorney Craig Kowalski brought the charges to a grand jury and will prosecute in Superior Court.

“While Mr. Johnson continues to enjoy the Constitutional presumption of his innocence, we believe the scope of the conduct alleged here makes Superior Court the appropriate venue,“ Morrissey said in a release. “These indictments move the matter to Superior Court.”

Johnson faces the possibility of more than 40 years in prison if convicted of all charges. He has pleaded not guilty.