A group of men searched an NC motel, claiming they were cops. They weren’t, police say.
Five men, including one from Charlotte, were arrested and charged with impersonating police officers while looking for someone in a motel Sunday morning.
At 1:10 a.m., Gastonia police officers responded to a report of a possible burglary at a motel in the 1400 block of East Franklin Avenue involving five suspects who claimed to be law enforcement.
Police determined the suspects weren’t officers and arrested them. The men used flashlights to look inside at least two motel rooms while announcing to any occupants that they were law enforcement, police said. One suspect had a handgun, police said.
Malique Jordan Nelson, 23; Marcus Nelson, 21, of Mount Holly; Donquavius Averon Boyd, 27, of Gastonia; Rodrick Duane Daniels, 37, of Gastonia; and Jameere Dashun Samuel Ollison, 28, of Charlotte, are each charged with impersonating a police officer, a misdemeanor.
“We do not know what the ultimate motive was for these individuals, especially since one of them was armed,” Gastonia Police Department spokesman Rick Goodale told the Observer. “A serious tragedy may have been averted because the person who called us saw something and said something.”
Each suspect was given a $2,500 unsecured bond, “so my understanding is that they are out,” Goodale said.
Fake cops in NC
There have been multiple instances in North Carolina in the past year of individuals accused of impersonating police officers or law enforcement. Here are a few examples:
▪ On Feb. 4, the U.S. Marshals Service arrested a former Charlotte police officer for impersonating a deputy marshal. Authorities found Douglas Frederick Martin’s counterfeit U.S. Marshals credentials at a Harris Teeter in Indian Trail in August 2019. During a separate stop for speeding in Cabarrus County, Martin told officers he was a U.S. marshal and presented “fictitious law enforcement credentials,” the agency said.
In November 2019, the U.S. Marshals Service used a search warrant at Martin’s home and seized a fake badge and “additional fictitious Deputy U.S. Marshal credentials.” Martin had been arrested for impersonating a law enforcement officer two other times since the 1980s, the Observer previously reported.
▪ On March 11, 52-year-old James Douglas Miller of Charlotte was arrested for using blue lights to try to pull over cars on an interstate highway in Western North Carolina. Law enforcement referred to him as the “blue light bandit,” the Observer previously reported.
▪ On April 22, police in Gainesville, Florida, arrested 51-year-old Tampa resident Carlton Ross Thomas for conducting a coast-to-coast scam that included attempting to scam an Iredell County resident out of $20,000 at a Florida hotel.
The victim’s family called the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office claiming that Thomas acted as a law enforcement officer and convinced the victim to send the money via overnight FedEx to take care of outstanding warrants against them, the Observer previously reported.
