Michael Turley, Arizona man, arrested over filming teen in sheet carrying fake grenade launcher
Police have arrested an Arizona man who allegedly filmed his 16-year-old nephew walking city streets dressed in a sheet and carrying a fake grenade launcher, authorities said on Wednesday.
Michael David Turley, 39, was arrested Monday over the making of the video, in which an unidentified narrator says he aims to discover how quickly police in Phoenix would respond following the fatal shooting of 12 people at the screening of the “Dark Knight Rises” Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado, in July.
The video depicts a person with a fairly realistic but fake grenade launcher walking around a Phoenix intersection in what appears to be a blue sheet with dark material covering his head and face.
“Given this event, I wanted to run a little test here in Phoenix, Arizona,” the narrator says in the film. “I want to find out how safe I really am, and I want to know the response time of the Phoenix police department.”
The filmmaker claims it took 15 minutes for police to respond.
Turley was charged with knowingly giving a false impression of a terrorist act, endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and misconduct involving a simulated explosive.