Thieves Impersonating Police Officers Arrested

Detectives Believe There May Be More Victims

Los Angeles: On May 30, 2009, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives arrested three suspects accused of impersonating police officers who entered victims’ homes and stole property.  Incidents have occurred in multiple areas of the city, including the San Fernando Valley.

On May 28, 2025 at 5:30 pm, three suspects posing as LAPD undercover narcotics officers knocked on an apartment door in the 400 block of N. Normandie Avenue in Los Angeles.  The victim answered the door and was asked by one of the suspects if “Juan Dominguez” lived there.  Before she could answer, one suspect pushed the door open and stated they were police officers who were conducting a narcotics investigation.  One suspect then handcuffed the victim and made her lie face down.  The suspect then called two other suspects into the apartment.  At that time, a second victim walked out to the living room from the kitchen to see what was happening.  One of the suspects demanded her purse, which she surrendered, and then directed her to lie face down as well. 

Another suspect proceeded to ransack the victims’ apartment while one of the three kept watch over both victims and the other posed as a lookout by the front door.  After looking for things to steal, the suspects left the location with currency and other items.

On May 30, 2025 at 7 p.m., two suspects followed two female victims into their apartment complex in the 8400 block of Cedros Avenue in Panorama City.  The suspects forced their way into the victims’ apartment, and one suspect identified himself as a police officer by showing a false police badge.  A struggle ensued between the suspect posing as a police officer and one of the victims as the suspect handcuffed the victim, and her cell phone fell to the floor.  The suspect took possession of her cell phone.  The second female victim left the apartment as the other suspect chased after her. 

After a short while, the handcuffed victim was able to free herself and left the apartment as well.  Later that evening, a third suspect, 28-year-old Carlos Guzman, was arrested when he arrived at the location and attempted to retrieve a false police badge from a vehicle parked in front of the victims’ apartment.  His arrest lead to the arrest of the other two suspects, 54-year-old Luis Guzman and 25-year-old Michael Bojorquez, both on June 4, 2009.  All arrested suspects were charged with robbery.

Since the victims of these robberies may have assumed the suspects were police officers, detectives believe there could be additional victims from similar incidents carried out by these suspects.

Anyone with information regarding these or other related robberies, as well as those who have been directly victimized under similar circumstances by these suspects, is asked to call Olympic Division robbery detectives at 213-382-9460 or Mission Division robbery detectives at 818-838-9461.  After hours or on weekends, calls may directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 or by texting CRIMES (274637) and beginning the message with the letters LAPD.  Tipsters may also submit information on the LAPD website www.lapdonline.org.  All tips may remain anonymous.

Comments

[Robert C. J. Parry]

How about the crooks at the Lakers' riot? You know, the ones in blue who aided and abbetted breaking and entering by standing by while the shops were burglarized and ransacked even though they are going to collect their overtime checks for diffusing the riot?

[alicein1derland]

Mr. Parry - were you there?? Did you actually witness an officer allowing theft?? If you did then you need to report it. If this is assumption on your part, then I think you are perpetuating the feelings of hatred toward the department, and that's just wrong.

[lovin my overtime check]

You, Mr. Parry, are job security for me. I will forever have a job because of ignorant people like you. Thank you. And yes, the overtime check will be beautiful this next payday Wednesday. 14 hours cash because some thugs wanted to act like morons over a basketball game. Thank you gangmembers and thank you Mr. Parry. I will put it towards my next vacation in Fiji! Kisses!

[crime pays]

Mr. Parry,

Everytime I get to the end of my rope I come across someone just like you. Someone who talks too much and listens too little. I like lovin my ot check will forever have a job because of people just like you. People who sit by and watch the world go by and then ask what's in it for me. People who don't know well i don't think that word would be printed here but here's the second part of ...from shineola. People who see the uniform before they see the person, people who see the establishment before they see anything else. Thank you for allowing me to have all I do have for not having to worry about a job for the past 20 years and for having somewhere to go every day that allows me to make a pretty good living. And no I am not a street cop, but I do make a living off of all you who commit crimes. So thank you Mr. Parry for keeping the stupidity alive and well. I need a new car next year and without you and your kind I would never be able to get it.

[Larry]

This is easy to prevent. Simply let the public know that there are always uniformed officers present when operations of this sort are going on... ESPECIALLY search warrants inside someone's residence.

[Thank you.]

Larry,

SO what do you think would be fair notice...two maybe three days? Isn't the very notion of a search warrant have to do with the element of suprise? Silly, silly Larry. How many cases would not be solved if we sent out announcments that at 6:00 am on Monday morning we would be there.

[Ed O'Shea]

Guys, you have got the wrong idea and guy, if you think that Mr. Parry is not pro-LAPD Grunt Police Officer. All you need to do is Google his name and read the articles this man has written to know that his frustration has been generated into a very supportive voice for the men and women of the LAPD's lower ranks. Before you opine ignorantly, do a little research. His problem, as should be all of ours (Officers, business owners and citizens alike), is the lack of intestinal fortitude displayed by the commanders on the ground at the Sunday night Laker win. That debacle was PATHETIC! Last time I checked the side of the door said " to protect and to serve" not " to defer and to ignore". Embarrassing. But more on it is better articulated by Jack Dunphy below.

Lakers Riots Embarrass LAPD

June 22, 2025 - by Jack Dunphy
“It could have been a lot worse.”
So said Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger of the downtown L.A. melee that followed the Lakers’ victory over the Orlando Magic last Sunday. If that’s the standard the LAPD is shooting for these days, the city is in big, big trouble. By the time the last of the Lakers’ “fans” were cleared from the streets that night, eight police officers had been injured, three businesses looted, and several cars and transit buses vandalized, all broadcast live from television news helicopters.
You just knew there was a problem with LAPD’s response when the ACLU approved of it. Attorney Carol Sobel, who represented plaintiffs who sued the LAPD after the 2007 May Day melee at L.A.’s MacArthur Park, told the Los Angeles Times that the LAPD had learned from its mistakes. “They didn’t come out in all their riot gear and I think that helped,” Sobel said. “You saw the line officers and it created a different dynamic. They were able to disperse people and do it in a less confrontational manner. They had a presence but they moved out people without the level of confrontation that existed in the past.”
Heavens, we wouldn’t want to be “confrontational” with anyone looting a store or vandalizing a bus, would we? Perish the thought!
Expressing a dissenting view was Richard Torres, 29. Torres owns a vintage shoe store a few blocks from the Staples Center, and when he saw on television that trouble was brewing after the game he headed downtown. When he arrived at his store he found it had been trashed and that nearly all of his $140,000 in inventory had been looted. Some of the shoes had been set on fire in the street in front of the store. One might speculate that Mr. Torres and the others who had their stores pillaged wish the police had been just a bit more confrontational.
But yes, it could indeed have been worse. As riots go, it was small potatoes. But that’s hardly cause to characterize as a triumph what was in reality an embarrassment for the LAPD. “In their Monday morning analysis,” said the Los Angeles Times, “police commanders declared the [non-confrontational] approach a success, limiting injuries and property damage, and showing the public that the department could restrain the use of force.” Sorry, but I’m not buying it. And neither should you, because no matter how Assistant Chief Paysinger and the rest of the brass tried to spin it in the press, everyone in the LAPD, from Chief William Bratton down to the greenest rookie, knows we got caught with our pants down that night.
But why were we so unprepared? There are three answers, all of them related to one another: poor planning, timidity, and lack of leadership in the upper ranks of the LAPD. First, as to the planning, the Lakers’ playoff schedule was known for weeks in advance, giving LAPD commanders ample time to deploy sufficient officers to deal with any trouble that might have followed a Laker victory or defeat. All 21 patrol divisions were told to staff heavily in the final week of the deployment period that ended on June 20. Incredibly, very few of those additional officers were pre-deployed downtown for what turned out to be the final Laker game on June 14. When the trouble began, the officers on hand were overmatched, and reinforcements had to be brought in from the far corners of the city. Once they arrived, there was a lack of coordination that might have been avoided had they been assembled prior to the game’s end.
Even more inexcusable is the fact that the officers most adept at crowd control (i.e., those assigned to the elite Metropolitan Division) were all given the day off on June 14. Metropolitan Division supervisors had suggested they change their schedule so as to be available in the event of a Laker victory Sunday, but the offer was declined at a higher level of the chain of command. This brings us to the timidity factor. Recall that it was Metropolitan Division officers who were involved in the May Day incident of 2007 (discussed here and here). A deputy chief was sacked in the wake of that incident, and despite the extensive training those officers have received in the two years since, some LAPD commanders are still reluctant to deploy them in those situations they are best trained to handle. Believe it or not, there are some in the highest ranks of the LAPD who would rather see stores looted and cars vandalized than see their own careers jeopardized by an incident that might in any way resemble what happened in MacArthur Park two years ago.
Such is the dearth of true leadership in the current Los Angeles Police Department, where experience behind a desk is more highly prized than actual police work when it comes time to evaluate candidates for promotion. Only a handful of those at the rank of captain and higher in the LAPD have the experience and leadership skills required to handle the kind of rapidly evolving situation as was seen near the Staples Center on June 14. None of them were there that night, as was evident from the poor performance shown to the world on television.
This takes nothing away from the officers who were there to face down those labeled by Chief Bratton as the “knuckleheads” responsible for the trouble. Of the patrol officers who did respond to Sunday’s melee, few had had any meaningful crowd control training, and almost none had had any real-world experience on a skirmish line trying to move a hostile crowd. And it’s impossible for a cop on a skirmish line or a sergeant or lieutenant standing behind it to have an overall picture of what’s occurring in the surrounding neighborhood. Whoever was in charge that night failed to react and deploy officers so as to prevent splinter groups from doing the damage they did. Thus we were left with the sight of a line of helmeted officers blocking an empty street and waiting for direction even as stores were being looted a few blocks away. Bratton and his underlings called it a success, but now you know better.
Yes, it could have been worse. But it could have been — and should have been — a whole lot better.

[Thank you very much]

I don't think "thank you", was trying to imply that we should give advance warning that a search warrant will be served. He was saying that the public should be informed that, at a search warrant, their are always uniformed officers present.