Man arrested for impersonating a peace officer

A Warrior man is in jail tonight, accused of trying to pass himself off as an anti-terrorism federal agent while driving around with four guns in his car.

Jefferson County Sheriffs deputies pulled the suspect over early yesterday morning for speeding, and then found a lot more.

"The only thing the sheriff's department will tell us about this suspect is he's a 44-year-old man from Warrior who had a pistol permit, no history of mental illness or a police record but beyond that, what they found in his car, very concerning," Chief Deputy Randy Christian said.

A sheriff's deputy pulled the man over for speeding on Hillcrest Road close to Corridor X and Cherry Avenue.

When he walked up to the car and asked for ID, he got a wild story.

"He told our deputies he was with the federal authorities and that he was conducting counterterrorism maneuvers and watching a house in McDonald's Chapel and none of that sounded right to us," Christian said.

The man flashed an ID that said he was an investigator for NCIS, or the counterterrorism unit, but the deputy instantly recognized it as a fake, then noticed the four guns in the car and called for backup.

A S&W .40 pistol was found in the man's shoulder holster, a Ruger .380 in one pocket and a .22 Berretta in the other pocket. Deputies later found a fourth gun in the driver side door of the vehicle along with some handcuffs. The vehicle was also found to be equipped with LED lights in the front and back windows.

"It's just a frightening situation to run up on that between midnight and one in the morning, it's a little unnerving," Christian said. "And with all we've had with mental illness and guns in this country lately, just glad we were able to interrupt this guy and whatever he had planned."

The man later admitted that he was not a law enforcement officer or special agent, but that he had always wanted to be one.

Deputies disarmed him, then took him to jail where he's now charged with impersonating a police officer. He is being held with no bond while investigators try to have him mentally evaluated.

"You combine the instability of someone's mind with firearms, and that's a recipe for tragedy and disaster," Christian said. "Hats off to our deputies for running up on this guy and handling him the way they did."

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