(PECULIAR, Mo., AP) – A suburban Kansas City man has been charged with impersonating an officer after two separate incidents earlier this week, including one that authorities say involved an armed confrontation with a shotgun-toting teenager.
Beaudonavan Martin Jr., 21, of Peculiar, also is facing two felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon after victims in both cases said the man who pulled them over Tuesday night was brandishing a handgun.
In the first incident, a man told police the suspect was “cussing and very angry” during the encounter.
In the second, a teenage couple driving south of Kansas City thought something was wrong when a car came up close behind them and started flashing its lights, so they called a friend and asked him to have a shotgun ready in case there was trouble, The Kansas City Star reported.
When they arrived at the friend’s location, the victims said the man following them got out of his vehicle holding a handgun and flashlight. He ordered the teen with the shotgun to drop it.
The victims said the man told them he was a deputy sheriff and they were in trouble for their driving, but he didn’t have a badge or other identification to show them.
The suspect holstered his handgun after the teen put the shotgun down, then told the mother of one of the teens – who had come out to see what was going on – that she was lucky her son wasn’t dead, court documents show.
Martin later denied to investigators that he was involved in the stops, but admitted he wanted to be a “cop,” according to the documents. He said his father was a deputy in California and he “knew how things worked.”
Online court records do not indicate whether Martin has obtained an attorney.