Was It a Hoax?

In the furor surrounding the passage of Arizona's notorious immigration crackdown bill, one incident that heavily inflamed the debate was the shooting of Pinal County Deputy Louie Puroll, who was allegedly shot by gang of drug smugglers he was tracking in the desert. Puroll reported being ambushed by the drug smugglers and then engaged in a running gun battle in which was grazed by a bullet in the back.

Now though two renowned forensic pathologists are saying that Puroll's wound was clearly suffered at point-blank range and thus, quite possibly, self-inflicted as part of an effort to create a cause celebre to rally anti-immigrant forces in the state.

TPM readers will be familiar with Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, as the sheriff from John McCain's 'danged fence' TV ad.

--Josh Marshall