Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck tonight accused LAUSD campus cop Jeff Stenroos of staging his own shooting shooting himself near El Camino Real High School last week, creating a fake story about a gunman shooting him — and setting off a massive manhunt, multi-school lockdown and shutdown of 7 square miles of the West San Fernando Valley.

It's time for a grand jury and California Attorney General Kamala Harris to fully probe the Los Angeles School Police. Stenroos is Job 1. But also probe the campus cops who accuse 18-year-old Jeremy Marks of “attempted lynching” for merely photographing an LASPD cop hitting another Verdugo Hills High School student. And don't forget “LAUSD's Finest,” an LA Weekly investigation into this inept, tiny force of campus cops. Here's the latest:

At a press conference shortly after 9 pm tonight, Beck announced what had been rumored among the media for two days: there is no “suspect” at large with a silver pony-tail, and Officer Stenroos is under arrest.

Holy mother of God. When is an outside investtigation going to do a full and long overdue look at the nasty stuff unfolding inside this non-transparent police department overseen by the Los Angeles Unified School Board — which can't oversee third-grade recess with consistent success?

As we and many others reported, after the alleged “shooting” by an “assailant” last week, the officer was widely praised for being smart enough to wear his Kevlar vest.

What a joke! Now Beck's crack team of investigators are looking into how he allegedly managed to fake his shooting and convince so many people.

Thousands of West Valley residents in Woodland Hills and West Hills could not get to their homes for hours as Beck ordered a massive perimeter and closed roads.

Seven public schools were locked down, and some children were forced to pee in special buckets of kitty litter kept in a closet for lockdowns. The threat of a wild-eyed gunman on the loose was considered so real that kids were not allowed to go to the bathrooms just down the hall.

San Fernando Valley parents were talking about suing because some children were all but imprisoned in classrooms without food for up to six hours.

Several hundred federal and local cops scoured Woodland Hills, and then announced that the “silver-haired man” must live locally because no “getaway car” was found.

What a horrific mess.

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