Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 61-year-old William B. Gray of Buffalo was sentenced this morning before State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller to five years of probation.

On April 15, 2020, at approximately 12:40 p.m., a Buffalo Police officer was responding to a high-priority call of a report of a person with a knife on Wyoming Avenue. As the officer was driving the patrol vehicle, with emergency lights flashing, he collided with another vehicle on Main Street near Benwood Avenue. Two pedestrians were subsequently injured as a result of the crash.

The officer, the two occupants of the other vehicle, and the two pedestrians were taken to the hospital. One pedestrian continues to recover from serious injuries. The other four individuals were treated and released.

The defendant admitted to making the 911 phone call that resulted in serious physical injury as a result of a crash involving an emergency vehicle that was responding to the defendant’s false report of a person with a knife.

 Gray pleaded guilty to one count of Falsely Reporting an Incident in the First Degree (Class “D” felony). The defendant pleaded guilty, as charged, to the only count in the indictment against him on April 27, 2021.

DA Flynn commends the Buffalo Police Department Homicide Unit and the New York State Police Accident Investigation Unit for their work in the investigation.

The case was prosecuted by Chief Paul J. Glascott of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau.