Cops: Ranger's Stabbing Wasn't What It Seemed

On Tuesday, authorities in Colorado said a ranger at Staunton State Park was stabbed in what appeared to be a "targeted attack." Investigators now believe the ranger, 26-year-old Callum Heskett, targeted himself. "Today, we arrested what we thought to be the victim in our stabbing from Staunton State Park," Jefferson County Sheriff's Office public information officer Jacki Kelley told Denver7 on Thursday. "He was arrested as a suspect after he created an elaborate hoax to involve himself in what turned out to be a self-inflicted wound."

The park, around 40 miles southwest of Denver, was closed and several schools in the area were locked down after Heskett, a seasonal ranger, claimed he had been stabbed by an attacker who ran away, the New York Times reports. According to an arrest affidavit, another park employee told 911 dispatchers that Heskett, a former police officer, had reported over his radio that he was in a "physical confrontation" with a person on a trail. The employee said he heard Heskett say things like "Get back" and "He's fighting me."

According to the affidavit, deputies found Heskett kneeling along the side of a park road, holding a pocket knife that appeared to have been stabbed into his lower left abdomen, Denver7 reports. He was airlifted to a hospital and treated for a wound 1 to 1.5 inches deep. The sheriff's office says investigators found multiple inconsistencies in his story—and discovered his online searches about stab wounds and abdominal arteries. Authorities said Heskett was still in the hospital when he was arrested Thursday and he will be transferred to the Jefferson County Hospital when he is released, reports the New York Post.