Fake police still at large after robberies
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Police are still looking for a group of armed suspects posing as officers, who terrorized a southeast Dallas neighborhood on Tuesday.
The group pistol-whipped a woman in the 9400 block of Bermuda before threatening to kill her and her children.
Maria Lopez was preparing a bottle for her one-month-old boy when the six armed men stormed into her home.
"They hit me right here, and then I fell on the floor," she said through a translator as she pointed to where they hit her head.
Lopez said the men ran through the home emptying drawers and shouting "where are the drugs?" Her three-year-old boy and her husband were also inside the home.
"They also pointed one of the guns at the children while they were demanding the property," said Dallas Police Lt. Mike Genovesi.
At first, Lopez thought the suspects were police officers.
"The men were dressed as police," she said. "They had a mask over their faces so you could only see their eyes."
The robbers were dressed like members of a tactical team, wearing dark clothing and carrying rifles.
"They were wearing black fatigues with the word 'Police' on the back identifying themselves as police when they came in," Genovesi said.
Authorities said when the gang didn't find what they were looking for, they ran next door where they forced several construction workers to the ground at gunpoint.
"'Police, Police, Police' - that's what they were yelling," said one worker through an interpreter. "I thought they were officers."
Kenneth Looney was working nearby when the robbers hit. He said the workers were told to empty their pockets.
"They took everything they had - cell phones, money, credit cards, billfolds," Looney said.
The men left without seriously hurting anyone, but they did leave behind some very frightened people.
Police said there have been other groups of robbers impersonating police during the last year. They don't know at this point if the incidents are connected.