He's Not 14 and He's Not a Cop

If you're going to pretend to be a cop, don't try your role on real police officers.

That may be the lesson a man armed with a fake gun and impersonating a police officer learned following his arrest early Tuesday in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the North Side.

It was just last week that Police Superintendent Jody Weis was grilled by the City Council about revelations that a 14-year-old boy had posed for hours as a Chicago Police Officer.

Now it's Juan Quintero, 25, who's charged, accused of ordering two people -- who happened to be off-duty Chicago police officers -- to get out of the neighborhood.

Wearing a police uniform with a "dimestore badge" or phony star around his neck, Quintero allegedly approached a man and a woman just after midnight. The couple (two off-duty police officers) walked to a vehicle and then got inside it near the intersection of North Leavitt Street and West Lawrence Avenue.

For an unknown reason, Quintero allegedly yelled at them and threatened them, saying, "You guys have to get out of here."

When the officers asked who he was, Quintero allegedly said, "I am the Chicago police, now get out of here," and he allegedly pulled out a plastic toy gun that, in the dark, looked like a real semi-automatic handgun, police said.

As one of the officers confronted him, Quintero retreated to 1991 Infinity and drove off with another person inside.

Quintero was pulled over and arrested "almost immediately," after the two officers flagged down a passing unmarked tactical police car and called 911, police said.

Officers recovered a large black semi-automatic replica firearm with a magazine and a holster, and a badge.

Unfortunately, police impersonators aren't a rarity. There were 33 cases in Chicago in the last year alone; an average of nearly three per month.

The Internet abounds with real police insignias and badges, including hats and real uniform patches and buttons from the CPD.

"We have to be vigilant against people like this, who, for whatever reason, want to use a falso position to impersonate an officer for some gain," Weis said.

Quintero actually may have been lucky.

The off-duty officers claimed he pulled the slide back on his replica gun as if he was cocking it to fire. The Chicago Use of Force Model would have allowed the officers to fire at him for doing that.

"Early in the morning, nobody can tell the difference between a replica gun and a real gun," Weis said.

The official charges against Quintero include impersonating a police officer, a felony, and aggravated assault for pointing a phony gun at the officers, according to police.

Quintero was also charged with possession of a replica firearm, having no driver’s license and no insurance, according to a release from police News Affairs.

A court date was not immediately known.

Quintero's actions could earn him three years in prison.

Leave Comments