A Man Accidentally Shot Himself And Blamed An Imaginary Black Man

A man accidentally shot himself in the stomach and decided to blame it on a black man who didn’t exist. 

Arthur Palombo, 20, told police that he went to Williamsbridge Oval Park in the Bronx on Wednesday to sell an old revolver to someone he had met a few weeks earlier, according to the New York Daily News . Palombo reported that the potential buyer, a bald black man, refused to pay the $100 asking price and shot him.

After Palombo, who is Hispanic, was taken to the hospital, NYPD searched the park and found his revolver.

Investigators questioned the man again when he was released from the hospital on Thursday. Palombo recanted his story and admitted that his gun went off while it was in his jacket pocket.

Cops arrested Palombo and he was charged with weapons possession and filing a false report.

He was released Friday on $10,000 bail, according to the city’s Department of Correction.

In November, an Ohio woman and her passenger, both attorneys, used a similar lie to blame a car crash on a nonexistent “black male who lost control of the vehicle” and fled the scene, according to WKYC. Surveillance footage outside of a bar less than a mile away from the collision showed that the two were actually drunk. Both were charged with obstruction and sentenced to 10 days in jail.