Former deputy sheriff charged with faking shooting and pursuit

A former Oklahoma deputy sheriff has been charged with allegedly faking a chase and shooting.

“Very early that day, we noticed some things that didn't match what we were seeing and what Deputy Smith was reporting at the time,” said Captain Marcus May of the Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office.

According to court documents, in early September 2021, former Deputy Taylor Smith observed a black male passenger armed with a long gun exiting a vehicle at the intersection of Okay Road and Hope Road in Pottawatomie County. Investigators said the vehicle continued north while the suspect fled on foot.

Smith reported that he found the suspect a few minutes later in a field in the wilderness and returned fire after the suspect shot at him before fleeing into the woods.

“When our officers arrived on scene, they found Deputy Smith near a gate where the suspect stated he had fled. There were several shell casings lying where Deputy Smith was sitting,” May said.

May said they were unable to find any of the suspect's shell casings and called in state investigators after finding several other inconsistencies with Smith's story.

“Early on in the investigation, we noticed that there was no evidence that a suspect or anyone else had been where Deputy Smith reported the incident. No bullet casings, no tracks in the loose papers on the ground, that was the biggest inconsistency at first,” he said.

In addition, the files state that when reviewing his body camera footage, there was no trace of the red sedan that Smith said the suspects were in.

About two weeks after the state investigation began, May said Smith resigned. We asked May if Smith gave a reason for the false report.

“The why and all that is pure speculation. We never got an answer as to why. Of course, (the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation) was involved in the investigation at that point, but I think that's a question that's still unanswered,” he said.

Smith is charged with false reporting of a crime, which is only a misdemeanor. When we asked May why Smith was only being charged now, nearly three years after the investigation was completed, he said that was a question for the district attorney's office.