USCP Arrests Man with Fake Badge, Body Armor & High Capability Magazines:
Courtesy: USCP
A retired Latest York City police officer was arrested Friday morning outside of the U.S. Capitol after being present in possession of a fake law enforcement badge, a BB gun, body armor, ammunition and high-capacity magazines, Capitol police said.
The ex-cop, 53-year-old Jerome Felipe of Flint, Michigan, was spotted by a Capitol patrol officer just before 5 a.m. ET parked in a 2017 Dodge Charger near Peace Circle, on the west side of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., authorities said.
Felipe presented the Capitol cops who spoke with him a fake badge that said, “Department of the INTERPOL,” based on Capitol police.
Interpol is the international police organization.
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“Felipe also made an announcement that he was a criminal investigator with the agency,” Capitol police said.
After he gave police permission to go looking his vehicle, officers found a BB gun, two ballistic vests, several high-capacity magazines and other ammunition inside.
“No real guns were found,” police said.
Felipe was charged with illegal possession of high-capacity magazines and unregistered ammo, based on police, who said that investigators try to find out why he parked near the Capitol.
A spokesperson for the Latest York Police Department, when asked about Felipe, told CNBC in an email, “The person retired in 2018.”
“We’re fully cooperating with the US Capitol Police investigation,” the spokesperson said.
A senior NYPD official told WNBC in Latest York that Felipe retired on disability after lower than 20 years of service, and was not given a so-called good guy letter, meaning he was not granted permission to hold a gun as many NYPD cops are once they retire.
A web-based database maintained by the Latest York State Division of Criminal Justice Service includes details about Felipe being faraway from the NYPD for cause in November 2018. It also says his removal was pursuant to a regulation related to “an worker’s resignation or retirement while a disciplinary process has commenced.”
NBC News, citing a senior NYPD official, reported that Felipe retired when he was facing allegations of getting misrepresented himself in official proceedings as a detective when his actual rank was a police officer.
The Capitol was stormed on Jan. 6, 2021, by a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump. They disrupted lawmakers as they confirmed President Joe Biden’s election during a joint session of Congress.
Greater than a dozen active-duty and retired cops, a few of whom were NYPD veterans, were arrested for participating within the invasion of the Capitol that day.
Last month, a federal jury in Washington convicted former NYPD officer Thomas Webster of assaulting a District of Columbia police officer through the riot. Webster attacked the cop with an aluminum pole while holding a Marine Corps flag, authorities said.
– Additional reporting by Tom Winter of NBC News
