A Maryland man named Antione Tuckson, 37, was indicted for impersonating a police officer, which he did for the past 15 years, and used a complex disguise using props, guns, a trained “bite dog” with a police vest, and a police-style vehicle with flashing lights. This information comes from federal prosecutors in court documents.
His disguise fell apart in Prince George’s County, Maryland, after he tried to arrest two women who were in a dispute at a restaurant on March 6. He was armed with a Glock handgun, a police vest in his attempt to dress like a member of the US Marshals. He worked at the restaurant as a security guard.
Tuckson is the one who called the Prince George County Police Department to the scene where the women were disputing the bill. The women fled and Tuckson pursued them down the road- where he ran into the actual responding officers. He flashed his badge to them and told them about the situation while pretending to be a deputy U.S. Marshal.
Officers were suspicious of the man because he had left his canine behind at the restaurant. On-duty K-9 officers are apparently trained to never leave their partnered officer’s side.
When officers became suspicious of Tuckson, he radioed to his accomplice Nijea Nicole Rich, 40, of Baltimore who pretended to be his supervisor over the phone.
She showed up at the scene wearing a tactical outfit and told the officers on the scene that the dog was not just a patrol dog but also her emotional support dog.
This is not the first time Tuckson has impersonated an officer of the law and it seems he has been doing this for the last 15-years. He was first charged in West Virginia in 2006, but charges were dropped. In D.C. in 2009, he was arrested on charges of impersonating a police officer but won the case on appeal.
“Undeterred, Mr. Tuckson’s impersonations grew more brazen over time,” court documents said.
Tuckson and Rich were later arrested for impersonating an officer. Both of them face a maximum of three years in federal prison and Rich faces a conspiracy charge, which is 5 years maximum. Tuckson also faces a 10 year sentence on the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. They appeared Friday before U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.
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U.S. Marshals never found any trace of either of them in their database.
Rich was able to pick up the dog the day after the incident from Animal Services, and documents show that Rich showed up in police-style clothing and told animal services that they were holding a U.S. Marshal.
“You locked up a U.S. Marshal?” said Rich.
Do you think there was something wrong with the two of them mentally?
