SAVANNAH, GA. (December 4, 2013): Carelessness caused a Savannah man to shoot himself in his pinky finger on Monday. Lying to police about it led to a host of charges after a foot pursuit from the hospital where he sought treatment.
Deaussey Ladarius Mungin, 21, was charged with false report of a crime, false name/address to police, obstruction, possession of marijuana and probation violation after he was chased down by Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police officers and a Liberty County sheriff’s detective who joined the pursuit.
A Metro violent crimes detective responded to Memorial University Medical Center at 7:23 p.m. to investigate Mungin’s report that he had been shot by someone in a passing car. Mungin was using a fictitious name and Islands Precinct patrol officers were unable to find a crime scene where he said the shooting had taken place.
When the detective saw the injury was consistent with a self-inflicted wound, he asked Mungin to submit to a gunpowder test. He chose instead to check himself out without treatment and donned a sweatshirt he had brought with him. But a magazine from a weapon fell from the sweatshirt and he began to run.
After his apprehension, two baggies of marijuana were found in his pocket and an outstanding warrant for probation violation was found under his real name. He was returned to the hospital for treatment of his pinky and then taken to the Chatham County Detention Center.
Chief Julie Tolbert pointed out the resources that had been wasted investigating Mungin’s original report and said Metro officers will press charges in any case where victims have lied to police.
“Numerous officers had been assigned to the investigation,” Tolbert said. “Those officers would have been on patrol to help keep our residents safe or investigating actual crimes. We cannot, and won’t, tolerate this waste of resources.”
Leave a Reply