A white Dayton bus driver's story of being attacked by three black teenagers, stabbed, shot, and saved by a copy of Eugene Peterson's "The Message," was unfounded by investigators.
Police announced Wednesday that the claims Rickey Wagoner made in February do not match the evidence in the case.
The city employee said the teens attacked him as part of a gang initiation. He sustained a gunshot wound to the leg, and stabs wound to the arm. He also said they boys, who Wagoner estimated to be between 15 and 18, shot him twice in the chest. His copy of "The Message"—a figurative translation of the Bible that was first published in 1993—was allegedly in his front pocket and stopped the bullets.
Wagoner said that he wrestled the gun and knife away from the teens, stabbed one with a pen knife, and fired at them as they ran away.
At first, police thought Wagoner's survival was a case of divine intervention.
"There was obviously some kind of intervention involved in this incident because [Waggoner] should probably not be here," Dayton Police Sgt. Michael Pauley told WPTV in February.
After an investigation, however, police and the Dayton Regional Transit Authority (RTA) discovered holes in the story.
Surveillance footage demonstrated that Wagoner would have had to wrestle the gun away, stab one of the teenagers, fire at them, and run 200 to 300 feet back to the bus, in 22 seconds. In addition, the bus driver was not out of breath when he reported the alleged attack to his dispatcher. Wagoner is 49-years-old and weighs 320 pounds, according to the New York Daily News.
Investigators also said it is impossible for "The Message" to have stopped the two bullets from going into Wagoner's body, and the stab wound to the arm appears to be self-inflicted.
RTA Executive Director Mark Donaghy said the department is outraged by Wagoner's false accusations.
"After conducting a comprehensive investigation that has spanned nearly four months, the police department has concluded Mr. Wagoner fabricated his statements," Donaghy said in a statement.
"All of us at RTA are angry at the thought that an employee would allegedly mislead the police, the public and us and use ugly racial stereotypes in doing so."
The city prosecutor will not be filing charges against Wagoner.
