Officer Sherry Hall of Jackson, Georgia, was recently convicted of 11 criminal charges, including making false statements and tampering with evidence. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sherry fabricated an entire incident that occurred in September 2016. Sherry desperately grabbed her radio on the night in question, and asked for back-up, claiming she was shot. Police swarmed the area attempting to find the suspect, who Sherry described as being a 6 foot 230-pound Black man. She claimed the man opened fire on her with no instigation. One bullet was found lodged in her protective vest, and a manhunt ensued that ended with a Black man that fit Sherry's description being questioned.
Several holes in Sherry's story led to an investigation. Her first mistake was not realizing her squad car's video system was active. Audio proved that there were only two gunshots fired, not three, as Sherry described. There were three shell casings found in connection with the investigation. The first two were discharged from Sherry's gun, as expected. The last shell that was found in the woods where Sherry claimed the suspect fired matched a department-issued backup firearm that Hall kept in her nightstand. Furthermore, the firing pin of that backup weapon had been tampered with.
No one is sure why Sherry would make this entire story up. Some claim that she might have been attempting to improve her status in the department, while others believe she was trying to get disability payments for post-traumatic stress disorder. Sherry was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by 23 years of probation.
