May 27, 2005
Teenage boy arrested for making up a story that he shot an intruder
A 13-year-old White City boy was jailed Thursday on charges that he staged an incident in which he claimed to have shot an armed intruder last month outside his grandmothers Medford
home.
The boy was lodged at Jackson Countys juvenile hall on a felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon, along with misdemeanor charges of reckless endangering and filing a false police report.
Medford police Lt. Tim George said forensics technicians at an Oregon State Police crime lab in Portland determined blood found in the back yard of a house in the 2200 block of Crater Lake Avenue
was that of the boy.
At about 12:30 p.m. on April 14, police went to the home after a reported shooting there. The boy told police he confronted an intruder who was trying to break into a travel trailer parked in his
grandmothers back yard.
The boy, who was alone at the home at the time, said he retrieved a handgun after the intruder pointed a gun at him. He told police he shot the man before the intruder fled the scene toward
Crater Lake Avenue, investigators said.
The reported incident prompted police to order temporary lockdowns at several Medford schools, including North Medford High School.
Although investigators recovered blood and found evidence that a weapon was fired at the home, the alleged intruder was never located.
"We believe it was a staged event," Medford police Lt. Mike Moran said of the reported shooting incident.
The boys grandmother previously told the Mail Tribune that she trusted her grandsons story, and believed the alleged intruder was the same person who twice before went to her home and
vandalized the travel trailer.