Update: March 7, 2024 at 11:24 a.m.
Bisbee police issued an update on the incident Thursday morning, stating the Toyota driver did not cross the threshold for impersonating an officer.
Police Chief Timothy Cox's response:
The Bisbee Police Department takes all calls for service with dedication, and we focus on the safety and security of our citizens. When receiving calls of this nature there is a heightened sense of urgency to confirm the facts and take appropriate action based upon the rule of law and legal processes. In this incident, the facts of the case do not meet the statute requirements for Impersonation of a Peace Officer, and the situation escalated before any law enforcement contact was initiated. We encourage anyone with questions about law enforcement contacts to reach out as soon as the incident is occurring or has occurred for prompt response and case resolution.
The driver has been identified and police are waiting for a phone call back to warn him about erratic driving and providing false information.
———————————————————————
Hunter and Ashley Stoehr were on their way home from the grocery store on Saturday when they encountered a red car "driving recklessly" through the Warren District of Bisbee.
Hunter told KGUN 9, the driver of the red car motioned for him to pull over several times before he finally did, in a parking lot near Warren Ballpark.
Ashley gave KGUN a copy of the video she recorded of the encounter, which shows the man exiting his vehicle twice. The first time he can be heard telling Hunter, "I'm a law officer and I'm on a run."
“In the moment, I really thought he was a law enforcement officer and that’s why I asked him over and over again for his name and badge number,” Hunter said.
The man never gave the couple his badge number. Hunter said he just wanted the man's name and badge number so he could report the interaction and how the man was driving to whatever agency he worked for.
“I’ve seen some videos online of things similar to this happening, but it was a law enforcement officer so my mind didn’t even suspect he was impersonating until we called Sierra Vista,” Hunter said.
In the video, the man can be heard saying, “I don’t have to tell you my name.... I work for Sierra Vista Public Service. What’s your problem?”
Hunter then called Sierra Vista Police Department when he and his wife got home. He was told SVPD didn't have any officers in Bisbee at the time the encounter took place and that they would pass the incident to the Bisbee Police Department.
“Knowing what I know now I probably wouldn’t have even stopped," he said. "I would have just grabbed a picture of his license plate and just gotten out of here as quickly as I could, because I don’t know where that could have gone.”
Hunter said he spoke with an officer from Bisbee Police who took the report and told him this could happen again since this was the second report of a red unmarked car trying to pull someone over in as many days.
“He told us on Friday night, the day before it happened to us, the same incident happened with red and blue lights, because it was night time and it was an elderly woman who reported a red vehicle just like his that tried to pull her over.”
Ashley said they want to share what happened to them, which is why they posted what happened on social media, to warn others about what's happening in their community.
“This community does have a larger amount of elderly people and quite bit of younger children too, so someone my age would have just pulled over and who knows what would have happened,” she said.
Her husband echoed the sentiment, and said they were advised to call 911 if an unmarked car is attempting to pull them over because they can ask if there are any cops in the area.
“It’s a small, cozy town here," Hunter said. "Everybody knows everybody. We’re a very close community and would never expect anything like this to happen in a town so small. But now that it did, I don’t know who’s out there. I don’t know what their intentions are.”
KGUN reached out to the Bisbee Police Department and was told they couldn't comment because this is an active investigation. Sierra Vista Police Department could not comment either because they have policies against commenting on another agency's investigation.
Cpl. Scott Borgstadt of the Sierra Vista Police Department did say he advises those in his classes that if they feel uncomfortable of pulling over, they should go to a "well-lit and well-populated area" to pull over or call 911.
——-
Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
