Hundreds of Millis, Massachusetts, residents and community members lined up on Labor Day to support their town's police department.
The event comes just days after 24-year-old Bryan Johnson, a Millis Police officer, allegedly admitted to investigators that he made up the whole story of his cruiser being shot at. In the hours that followed, a large scale manhunt ensued for the gunman. Residents were terrified and schools were put on lockdown.
"When your kid is on lockdown and there's a supposed shooter out there, it's a scary thing, but everyone worked so well together," Melissa Magnone, a Millis Resident, said.
"I think it sounds like somebody made a bad choice and didn't know how to get out of it, and thought maybe they could squeeze out of it in a different way, and it ended very badly," added resident Sarah Hagen.
Now throughout the town, there's blue balloons on mail boxes and ribbons on telephone poles to support the police, in a time when relationships between officers and their communities have been strained elsewhere in the country.
Police say one bad act by one person doesn't take away from whole department.
"It's just nice to know there are all these people around the country that support their police departments. It means a lot to all of us," Sgt. Dwyer, of the Millis Police Department said.
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"They worked a hard and very difficult case, and they continue to work hard on it. Their actions will hopefully demonstrate to the people in Millis that the professionalism of their police department is beyond question," Chief Keith Edison added.
Johnson will be arraigned after his six to ten day stay at a hospital for evaluation.
