MOBILE, Ala. — Investigators spent the early part of last week digging through records trying to identify a man who posed as a police officer before fatally shooting a driver he pulled over on Interstate 10, and the fallout has left Mobile on edge for a different reason: a wave of residents calling in officers they mistakenly believed to be impersonators.
Mobile Police Chief James Barber said that on a single day last week, officers responded to at least four separate reports of suspected fake cops. None of them checked out. “These aren’t situations where anybody’s trying to stop someone,” Barber said. “I know on a couple of them they just saw a car with blue lights in the dash that weren’t activated and were calling the police on them — but that is an issued police car… We’ve got cops chasing cops.”
The scare traces back to the death of 29-year-old David Patrick Kyles, who was driving a black 2002 Honda Accord with the Alabama tag 2AT7771 when flashing blue lights came on behind him just before 1:40 a.m. Investigators believe Kyles was pulled over by a man impersonating a police officer, then handcuffed and shot near the intersection of Interstate 10 and Theodore Dawes Road.
Officers recovered the vehicle authorities believe the suspect used: a white Ford Crown Victoria that appeared to be a retired police surplus car, registered out of Florida. Barber said there were no reports it had been stolen, and investigators had not yet determined how the suspect obtained it. He called the case one of the most extreme he has encountered in his career, noting the suspect had apparently stolen a municipal license plate off a police officer’s take-home vehicle — adding a layer of realism that made the impersonation especially convincing and dangerous.
Kyles’ Honda Accord has not been recovered, and investigators believe the person responsible for the shooting may have driven off in it. Barber asked anyone who spots a black four-door Honda Accord matching the description to contact police, and urged owners of similar vehicles in the area to double check that the tag on their own car is actually theirs.
“Anybody that sees that vehicle or sees a Honda Accord 4-door, we’re very interested in checking it,” Barber said. “I would say that any owners in this area that have a black Honda Accord 4-door… go out and take a look at the tag and make sure and verify that the tag that’s on that car is in fact their tag.”
With unconfirmed rumors circulating and residents on alert, Barber said his department had not verified a single additional impersonator case as of Monday afternoon, despite the flood of calls. He reminded drivers who fear they are being stopped by an impersonator that they can activate their hazard lights and continue — at a reasonable speed — to a well-lit, populated area, such as a gas station or fire station, before stopping, and can call 911 along the way to confirm whether the officer behind them is legitimate.
“In a general sense, Mobile PD doesn’t use unmarked cars for traffic enforcement… but that’s not the same with every agency,” Barber said, noting that state troopers and other agencies do sometimes use unmarked vehicles.
The investigation into Kyles’ death remains open, and Mobile police continue to ask anyone with information about the missing Honda Accord or the circumstances of the shooting to come forward.