Charges filed against former Wilson cop accused of fabricating shooting

WILSON, Okla. (KXII) - A former Wilson police officer has been charged after OSBI says he called 911 and lied about being shot in the line of duty.

Wilson police chief Kevin Coley called the whole incident an expensive lie. The alleged shooting happened on February 20th.

At the time police told News 12 officer Tyler Skinner was patrolling near Wilson schools in the early morning hours when a man shot him twice in the bulletproof vest.

Coley said Skinner’s story started to seem suspicious, and he called in OSBI.

“When OSBI got here I told them from the beginning I wanted them to investigate it from both directions,” Coley said. “The timeline didn’t make sense. Going back to audio on people’s security cameras and stuff, there was a large gap between the time that the rounds were fired that were supposedly at him, and his return fire - which if you had been shot at, it would have been pretty much instantaneous. Once we figured out what weapons were used in the incidents, we knew that he had both weapon types.”

Coley said after the investigation, OSBI confronted Skinner, and he admitted to making the whole thing up.

“He did confess,” Coley said. “And he cited a mental health situation.”

News 12 spoke with Skinner - who was fired after the incident - on the phone on Thursday. He told News 12 his attorney had advised him not to comment.

A friend -who wanted his last name kept private-  spoke to News 12 and said he’s known Skinner for years, and he’s always been a kind and considerate person.

“I’ve known him to always be a great person,” Grant said. “Anytime you need help, he’s willing to help anyone.”

“He would go out of his way to help anybody,” Coley said. “That was what was odd about it. I never in a million years would have seen this coming.”

Skinner has been charged with misdemeanors - two counts each of malicious injury to property and false reporting of a crime.

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