Fake deputy flees when real cop shows up, California officials say. He didn’t get far
A man accused of impersonating a sheriff’s deputy was spotted by a real deputy and fled before crashing, authorities in California said.
A deputy with the Fallbrook Sheriff’s Substation drove by “what appeared to be a traffic stop” in the early morning hours on Monday, June 13, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. The deputy spotted a silver car that had flashing strobe lights on the front and back.
When the deputy turned to help who he thought was a “plainclothes deputy,” the man — who was wearing “a black shirt with San Diego County Sheriff’s Department patches, a gun belt with a gun in the holster” — ran to his car and fled, the statement says.
The deputy tried to pull the man over, but he turned off his lights, “making it too dangerous for the deputy to follow.”
The deputy later found that the suspect had crashed, causing a small brush fire that responding deputies extinguished, the sheriff’s department said.
The man, 21-year-old Michael Carmichael of Oceanside, was treated at a hospital before being booked into the Vista Detention Center, the release says.
After obtaining a search warrant for Carmichael’s home, deputies found more objects that could be used to impersonate peace officers, the release said.
Carmichael faces “charges of impersonating a peace officer, felony evading, possessing a baton and brass knuckles, as well as false imprisonment.”
A woman in the car with Carmichael received minor injuries and the driver the suspect originally pulled over was not injured.
The sheriff’s department encourages those worried about being pulled over by an impersonating officer to “turn on your emergency flashing lights so the deputy can see you acknowledge them,” the release says. You also have the right to ask the responding deputy to present identification.
