The story about an Arizona sheriff’s deputy who may have faked a shooting to increase racial tensions over the state’s new immigration bill – written by Seattle Weekly sister paper Phoenix New Times and published as well by SW – is getting national attention and, more importantly, local results. ABC, among others, picked up the story last night, essentially repeating the results of Paul Rubin’s four-month investigation into Pinal County Deputy Louie Puroll’s shooting by – Puroll claimed – Mexican drug smugglers, even though experts now say the wound appeared self-inflicted. The “strange tale,” as Diane Sawyer termed it, was used by Sen. John McCain to promote his re-election effort and co-opted by anti-immigration proponents in the battle over S.B. 1070, the new “papers please” law (in which ex-Seattle prostitute and accused murderer Shawna Forde became a symbol). Now, in the New Times story’s wake, the deputy isn’t talking anymore and his boss the sheriff has re-opened an investigation into the claims. The ABC report below: