Police officer shot himself, is fired
FALSE REPORT
NEW PHILADELPHIA — A Newcomerstown police officer has been fired and could face multiple charges after he admitted Tuesday that he shot himself in the arm and made up a story that he was shot by someone in a vehicle during a traffic stop.
Bryan J. Eubanks, 37, a 14-year veteran with the Newcomerstown Police Department in northeastern Ohio, admitted under questioning from investigators Tuesday that he had made up the story to cover up a failed suicide attempt.
At a news conference Tuesday, Newcomerstown Police Chief Gary Holland said Eubanks was terminated from the force.
Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell said Eubanks could face multiple charges, including inducing panic and theft for reporting hospital treatment of his injury as work-related. Prosecutor Ryan Styer will determine what Eubanks will face.
“He’ll be held accountable just like anybody else will,” Campbell said.
Shortly after 10 a.m. on April 11, Eubanks radioed that he had made a traffic stop involving a black Geo Tracker on the bridge over the Tuscarawas River at South River Street. He then claimed that he had been shot in the right forearm by a passenger in the vehicle before it fled.
About 100 local, county and state lawenforcement officers were involved in a search for suspects the first day along with officials from the FBI, ATF and the U.S. Marshals Service. A potential suspect — identified by Eubanks — came in for questioning but was cleared, Campbell said.
“We had a house surrounded in Coshocton County from one of the leads, so it was quite a response,” Campbell said. “However, the outcome of the case is not as we had hoped.”
The story began to unravel when the sheriff’s office used a license plate reader on Eubanks’ cruiser to talk to the owners of all the cars that passed the cruiser on the bridge. Four witnesses said there was no other vehicle there and Eubanks was standing alone on the bridge.
Confronted by investigators, Eubanks confessed, saying he shot himself with a .40-caliber weapon that he owned. The weapon has not been recovered.
Eubanks said that “he has been struggling emotionally with some things” since he worked on the murder last year of Jane Plants of Newcomerstown, Campbell said. Her son Charles has been charged.
“He cooperated. He wanted this to end today” Campbell said. “He gave us a statement, both written and recorded, saying that he made it up, that his intention was to harm himself the entire time.”
Eubanks was released to his family and will seek immediate mentalhealth treatment.