Odd siren coming from truck leads corporal to man posing as US Marshal, Florida cops say
A man accused of pretending to be a U.S. Marshal was exposed as an imposter after a sheriff’s corporal noticed the unique sound of his siren, authorities said.
A Marion County Sheriff’s Office corporal was stopping for gas on July 31 at a Marathon in Summerfield, Florida, when he heard an “unfamiliar” noise, according to an Aug. 2 Facebook post.
He looked up for the source of the sounds and saw a black pickup truck lit up with flashing red and blue emergency lights, the sheriff’s office said.
The truck drove around cars and then blew through a red light, according to the post.
The corporal knew there were no calls for service in the area that would require that level of response, so he got in his vehicle and followed the truck until he pulled the truck over for a traffic stop.
In body camera footage shared by the sheriff’s office, the corporal is seen walking up to the driver’s side window and asking the driver to identify himself.
The driver, 52, was wearing a hat that said “Police U.S. Marshal,” and gives his name while flashing a badge, the video shows.
The corporal asks the driver where he is headed, and he tells the corporal he is responding to a shooting in Marion Oaks, about 13 miles west of where they were stopped.
“I’m just looking for something to verify that you’re a U.S. Marshal,” the corporal says to the driver.
The sheriff’s office said there were no reports of a shooting in Marion Oaks, so the corporal called the office’s U.S. Marshal Liaison to ask the driver a few questions.
The driver tells the corporal and the liaison that he is a U.S. Marshal based in Texas, but he had come to Florida for work.
“They got me down in Florida right now looking into Marion Oaks,” the driver told the liaison over the phone. “There’s two gang members, two gangs out there that are riding on a four-wheeler with a pole on it busting into people’s houses.”
The liaison asked the driver over the phone what district he works out of in Texas, to which the driver responded “Dallas,” the video showed.
The driver told authorities he was driving his personal vehicle and didn’t have his credentials, but the truck had a Florida license plate, the corporal said in the video.
The corporal went into the truck and saw there was a control panel for the driver to display lights and there were multiple siren options, the footage showed.
The liaison later arrived on scene and questioned the driver in person, asking again where the driver works in Texas.
“What’s your district?” the liaison asked.
“District? What do you mean?” the driver responded.
“If you’re a U.S. Marshal, you would know your district,” the liaison said.
The U.S. Marshals Service operates 94 federal districts across the country, in the Virgin Islands and Guam, according to its website. Dallas is the headquarters of the Northern District of Texas.
The driver continued to give “inconsistent information,” and the deputies and U.S. Marshal concluded he was impersonating a Marshal, the sheriff’s office said.
When they searched his truck, they found a firearm and the prescription drug Diazepam hidden in a compartment in his wallet, the sheriff’s office said.
The driver was taken into custody and charged with false impersonation of a law enforcement officer, unlawful use of blue lights, unlawful use of a badge, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of Diazepam and introduction of contraband into a detention facility.
“The public places a lot of trust in us. We recognize that. There’s a great deal of power and control here from a law enforcement standpoint to keep the peace. When someone is trying to interfere with that unlawfully, we take it very serious,” Marion County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Paul Bloom told WOFL.
Summerfield, Florida, is about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.
This story was originally published August 7, 2023 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Odd siren coming from truck leads corporal to man posing as US Marshal, Florida cops say."
