MILLIS (CBS) – The Millis police officer who was fired after he was accused of fabricating a shootout that shut down schools and briefly put part of the town on lockdown last summer has died. 
 
 Bryan Johnson, 24, was found dead in his home in Millis around 3:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving, according to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office. 
 
 “No signs of foul play were found at the scene. The death is not currently being investigated as a homicide. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has accepted the case for autopsy,” Peggie Krippendorf, a spokeswoman for the D.A., said in a statement Thursday afternoon. 
 
 A grand jury issued six indictments against Johnson on November 19. He was charged with calling in a bomb threat, misleading a criminal investigation and making a false police report. Johnson’s death closes the case. 
 
 Investigators say Johnson made up a claim in September that a gunman fired at his cruiser before it crashed into a tree and caught on fire. ||||| CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share A former Massachusetts police officer accused of making false reports of a bomb threat and a shootout was found dead in his home Thursday. Video provided by Newsy Newslook 
 
 A police officer watches as a cruiser is removed from Forest Road, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015 in Millis, Mass. An officer reported that his police vehicle was shot at by an unknown person, but the officer's claim turned out to be a hoax. (Photo: AP) 
 
 A former part-time Massachusetts police officer accused of shooting up his own patrol cruiser and calling in a hoax bomb threat has died after apparently committing suicide. 
 
 Bryan Johnson, 24, was found dead early Thanksgiving morning in his Millis, Mass. home, the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said. Millis is a bedroom community of 8,000 people about 30 miles southwest of Boston. Prosecutors said there were no signs of foul play and his death is not considered suspicious. 
 
 Johnson faced six charges stemming from a Sept. 2, 2015, incident in which he said he was attacked by a gunman who shot up his cruiser and fled. Johnson’s cruiser was found crashed into a tree and on fire, and authorities launched a massive search to find the reported gunman. 
 
 But within hours, police decided it was all a hoax, as was a bomb threat called into a local school. Johnson, who was fired, was free pending a future court appearance. A grand jury indicted him Nov. 19 and he was on home confinement monitored by a GPS device, according to court records. 
 
 According to prosecutors, Johnson, a police dispatcher who also worked part-time as an officer, fired a personal firearm into the cruiser in a remote area of the town, drove a little further before crashing into a tree and getting out of the vehicle, which then burst into flames. Prosecutors said Johnson told dispatchers that he’d come under fire from an unknown white man in a maroon pickup truck that had fled the area toward the neighboring town of Medfield. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1Hqr8S0 ||||| A former Millis police officer — indicted last week for allegedly making a hoax bomb threat and faking a shootout — was found dead in his home before dawn on Thanksgiving Day, authorities said. 
 
 Bryan Johnson, 24, was found at about 3:30 a.m. by a resident of his home, who called police, authorities said. There were no signs of foul play and the death is not currently being investigated as a homicide, a spokeswoman for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said.
– A sad end to a strange story: Bryan Johnson, a former police officer accused of calling in a bomb threat and faking a shootout earlier this year, was found dead in his Millis, Mass., home Thanksgiving morning—and authorities believe he died by his own hand, USA Today reports. The 24-year-old faced a potential sentence of more than 40 years in prison over the bizarre events of Sept. 2, when he allegedly fired his personal firearm into his own cruiser and told dispatchers a man in a pickup truck had shot at him and fled, reports the Boston Herald. Prosecutors say Johnson, whose vehicle was found burning and crashed into a tree, called in a bomb threat to a local school the same day. The twin hoaxes caused the Boston-area town to be put on lockdown for hours during a huge manhunt, CBS reports. Johnson, a police dispatcher who worked part-time as an officer, was fired after authorities decided there had been a hoax. He was indicted on six charges last week and, according to court records seen by USA Today, was on home confinement at the time of his death. (An Illinois police officer tried to hire a hit man before he staged his own death.)