FALLS CITY, Neb. (AP) — An ex-sheriff’s deputy in Nebraska has been sentenced to three years of probation after accidentally shooting himself and then trying to make it look like he’d been the victim of a crime.

Twenty-six-year-old Joshua Nincehelser was sentenced Tuesday. He pleaded no contest in November to felony criminal mischief and misdemeanor false reporting.

Nincehelser told authorities in June that he was shot by a driver he had pulled over near Humboldt, but authorities determined he lied. Nincehelser eventually admitted to investigators that he accidentally shot himself, and then shot at his cruiser to make his story look real.

He was later fired from the Richardson County Sheriff’s Department.