Two men suspected of impersonating law enforcement officers and conducting a traffic stop on a victim have been taken into custody, authorities announced Wednesday.
Deputies assigned to the Lake Elsinore Sheriff’s Station responded shortly before 10:50 a.m. Feb. 22 to the area of Grand Avenue and Corydon Road following reports of two individuals posing as officers, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
The victim reported to deputies that a black Ford Police Interceptor drove behind her into a parking lot moments before activating red and blue emergency lights and a siren, as though they were conducting a traffic stop.
“The driver and passenger of the police vehicle contacted the victim and requested her identification. The victim became suspicious during the interaction and later reported it to law enforcement,” sheriff’s officials said in a statement.
Further investigation led detectives assigned to the Special Enforcement Team to identify the two suspects as 53-year-old Juan Jimenez and 42-year-old Elias Roman, both of Lake Elsinore.
The suspect vehicle was located on March 5, and deputies took Jimenez into custody without incident.
A search warrant was executed at Jimenez’s residence as part of the investigation, where investigators recovered evidence items, including badges, multiple police patches and police uniform items, sheriff’s officials said.
Jimenez was booked at the Cois Byrd Detention Center on suspicion of impersonating a police officer and false imprisonment.
Roman was located on Tuesday and was also taken into custody without incident. He was booked at the Cois Byrd Detention Center on suspicion of impersonating a police officer and false imprisonment.
Anyone with additional information regarding the case or who may have encountered the suspects was urged to call the Lake Elsinore Sheriff’s Station at 951-245-3300.
That was the m.o. of the Hillside Strangler. Him and his cousin would impersonate police officers, pull women over and abduct them. They took the women to the cousins body shop and raped and tortured them forv hours, doing things like injecting Windex into their veins just to see what happened . When they tired of it they would strangle the women and dump their bodies along the hillsides. They did it for years and were caught only after they moved to Washington state and tried their routine there. Their operation was easily discovered without the mass population that LA has that kept them hidden.