A Maryland police officer was ordered held without bond Wednesday after being indicted on charges including attempted-murder and sex offenses, according to court records. The charges are in connection with the officer shooting a man, then claiming he was carjacked.
Gene Gillette, an officer with the Mount Rainier Police Department, was indicted Tuesday by a Prince George’s County grand jury on 12 counts. The indictment contends Officer Gillette, 27, shot a man July 2 in Capitol Heights after attempting to make him perform oral sex and trying to touch his genitals.
Officer Gillette initially claimed he shot the man to defend himself against an attempted carjacking, according to Mount Rainier Police Chief Michael Scott. When police arrived at the scene, officers found a crashed car and the purported carjacker suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, said Prince George’s County police, who investigate shootings involving municipal police departments.
Officer Gillette, who was off-duty at the time of the incident, has been suspended without pay since, Chief Scott said.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for the charges, according to the State’s Attorney’s Office for Prince George’s County. For two consecutive years, Officer Gillette, a three-year-veteran of the town’s police department, was honored with the 16-man police department’s Officer of the Year Award, Chief Scott said.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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