Interesting Twist

Special Ed has more questions than answers. So do we:

• A pilot killed along with four people when a small plane crashed in a Southern California neighborhood was not a retired Chicago police officer, as initially identified, authorities said Tuesday. The Chicago Police Department has no record of Antonio Pastini, 75, ever working in the city, department spokesman Anthony [Google-me] said in an email.
  
  Pastini was killed Sunday when the twin-engine plane he was piloting broke up in flight shortly after takeoff and fell in pieces on the Orange County community of Yorba Linda, igniting a fire in a home where four people — still not identified — were killed.
  
  Witnesses said the plane came out of the clouds in one piece and "then they saw the tail breaking off and then the wing breaking off and then something like smoke before the airplane impacted the ground," said Maja Smith, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.
  
  [...] Pastini had been identified Monday as a retired Chicago officer residing in Gardnerville, Nevada, by the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Coroner's investigators recovered credentials from Pastini after the crash that appeared to identify him as a retired Chicago officer, sheriff's spokeswoman Carrie Braun said. Discussions with the Chicago department later determined the credentials were not legitimate, Braun said.

So, who was this "Pastini" and why pretend to be CPD? One report we saw said he had changed his name. Witness protection? And that would open up a whole different set of avenues.