Officials: Man Admits Lying about Shooting

RUSK — Cherokee County Sheriff’s Deputies say they met with Garrett Scott Curtis, the Rusk State Hospital Employee who was shot on Tuesday, and his story has changed. The Sheriff’s Department tells KETK numerous inconsistencies in Curtis’s account of the shooting led them to believe that the incident was staged. During an interview on Thursday, Curtis reportedly told detectives that he fabricated the facts and that the gunshot wound was self inflicted. Curtis first told detectives he had been involved in a dispute with several people in another county recently, and that the shooting was in retaliation for the previous incident. Officials earlier reported that Curtis returned to work from lunch Tuesday with the gunshot wound and was transported to a Tyler hospital. No criminal charges have been filed at this time.