Police arrest cop, accuse him of lying about being shot

KTHV-TV, Little Rock, Ark.

Show Caption Hide Caption England police officer admits to filing false police report An England police officer is arrested after new information shows he lied about being shot during a traffic stop.

ENGLAND, Ark. — An officer who said he was shot during a traffic stop last month was arrested Tuesday after authorities said the incident never happened.

Sgt. David Houser, 50, of the England Police Department was charged with filing a false police report, booked into Lonoke County jail and later released on bond.

The charge stems from an incident at about 2 a.m. CT Oct. 24 when Houser said he made a traffic stop on Arkansas 15, a rural highway about 30 miles east of Little Rock. Investigators at the time claimed Houser approached the driver's door of an early 2000 model Chevrolet Tahoe or GMC Yukon and its driver pointed a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun out of the window at him, hitting him in his bulletproof vest.

"Houser told local and state law enforcement officers that while on patrol that he had exchanged gunfire with a suspect who fled from him driving a sport utility vehicle south of England along state Highway 15," according to a press release from Arkansas State Police. "Houser also reported he had been shot by the suspect."

The report sparked a statewide manhunt for a Hispanic man with little or no hair in a silver SUV with tinted windows that may have been hit by the officer's bullets.

"The more we investigated, the more it became clear that the details of his story were inconsistent," England Police Chief Nathan Cook said. "We went after it as if we were going after someone who had just tried to kill a police officer."

Cook said he fired Houser on Monday. At the time of the incident, the police department sent emergency medical technicians, called Arkansas State Police and established a crime scene.

"He was a good officer," Cook said. "I'm not a doctor, so I can't speculate why this happened. I know he's had some personal losses lately. We just hope he gets the help he needs."

Houser, hired in October 2013, previously worked as a deputy in the Lonoke County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff John Staley said Houser also has been terminated from the reserve deputy program. Staley also said Houser has no lawyer.

Houser didn't return a call seeking comment. His first court appearance is Nov. 16.

"I've heard he's a very good guy, so this is shocking and it's disappointing, but he's going to be held accountable," Staley said. "It happens enough in reality. You pray that when you make a traffic stop, it won't happen. And it does. Why would you ever make that up? What would he gain from that? It's just amazing to me."

Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow KTHV-TV on Twitter: @THV11