Los Angeles County prosecutors filed four felony charges Thursday against an L.A. Unified school police officer whose tale of being shot by an assailant led to a dragnet that closed seven square miles of the San Fernando Valley.

Jeffrey Stenroos, 30, faces charges including perjury, filing a false insurance claim, preparing false evidence and filing a false police report in connection with the Jan. 19 hoax, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County district attorney's office.

He also was charged with a misdemeanor of falsely reporting an emergency. If convicted on all counts, Stenroos faces a maximum sentence of five years in state prison.

[Updated at 12:11 p.m.: “The actions of Officer Stenroos put into motion a series of events that wasted valuable department resources, negatively impacted thousands of schoolchildren and their families, and disrupted the lives of a countless number of people," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said.]

[Updated at 1:15 p.m.: With the filing of charges, the L.A. Unified School District has begun the process of dismissing Stenroos. "Mr. Stenroos is neither a good example of the men and women who serve as members of our school police force, nor is he a good example for our students," said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines. "Lying is never acceptable."]

Stenroos, who is free on $20,000 bail, was arrested in January in connection with the hoax that brought Woodland Hills and surrounding communities to a standstill amid a lockdown of nine schools that left 9,000 students shut for hours in their classrooms.

The eight-year veteran of the Los Angeles Unified school police force told authorities he had been shot in his bullet-proof vest just outside the El Camino Real High School campus by a white man in his 40s wearing jeans and a bomber jacket.