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Sheriff: Prankster(s) make two false officer down calls

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Sheriff deputies were put on high alert April 6, after receiving two officer down calls.

According to the report, the first call came into Albuquerque and Window Rock, Ariz. dispatch centers shortly after 9 am from a caller by the name of “Dwayne.” The caller said there was a Navajo Police Department officer shot below his vest, and bleeding out, near the Family Dollar store on State Highway 264.

When McKinley County Sheriff Sgt. Monty Yazzie arrived at the scene, he didn’t locate an injured officer. He drover further north, to Yatahey, and things there appeared normal, too.

Meanwhile, a second call came in at 5:55 pm, which McKinley County Sheriff’s Deputy Lorenzo Guerrero responded to, near the Arizona state line.

According to Guerrero’s report, the call stated that an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer was shot near Lupton, Ariz., and a white pickup truck was spotted leaving the scene, heading eastbound on Interstate 40.

Guerrero spotted an Arizona DPS unit searching the area. The two met at the Hawthorne Road exit off westbound I-40, in Arizona, where Guerrero was informed that the call was a hoax. Arizona DPS dispatch had received the same false call as Metro Dispatch.

There are no suspects at this time.