Dona Ana County animal-control officer fends off attacker.

 

Dona Ana County law officers are calling the attempted assault on a uniformed female county animal-control officer around 10 p.m. Monday an escalation of a series of brazen acts by police impersonators in the area.

There have been seven attacks by a man or men impersonating police officers in the past six weeks, six of them against women, and no one has been arrested, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported today on its Web site.

The female officer was releasing a snake into the desert north of Las Cruces, near the intersection of Del Rey Boulevard and Calle Las Lomas, when a man pulled up behind her marked vehicle and pointed a spotlight at her, Dona Ana County sheriff's investigator Robyn Gojkovich told the Sun-News.

The man then charged after the animal-control officer, but she was able to repel him with a baton, Gojkovich told the paper.

The officer, who doesn't carry a firearm, was unable to get a clear look at the assailant but described his vehicle as a dark-colored SUV with red and blue grille lights, the Sun-News reported.

Sheriff's officials expressed concern that the attack on a uniformed officer means an escalation in tactics by the men or men who have pulled over motorists pretending to be police officers since at least February 25, in some cases beating, molesting and raping women drivers.

"They have gone up to the next level, and that concerns me," Sheriff Todd Garrison told the Sun-News.
City and county lawmen say the attacks have been carried out by men of different descriptions driving different vehicles and are unsure whether the same men are responsible for the incidents or whether some are copycat attacks, the Sun-News said.

Police officers and deputies have suspended the practice of stopping vehicles when they are in unmarked cars except in extreme circumstances and have urged motorists to call 911 to verify whether anyone trying to stop them is a valid law officer, the paper reported.

Las Cruces Deputy Police Chief Pete Bradley told the Sun-News that stops by police impersonators are not unique to Las Cruces, but is becoming "a fairly common problem" across the nation.

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