HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – In an act of taking impersonating a police officer to a new level, the U.S. government has charged a 31-year-old from Cypress with pretending to be a federal agent from the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service.
Mitchell Gregory Shoemaker, charged in federal court with impersonating an officer or employee of the United States, and possession of a firearm by persons under indictment, isn’t a cop. According to the real federal agent who arrested Shoemaker, the man made up quite a story.
On Dec. 10, Magnolia Police say Mitchell Shoemaker showed up at a gun range, reserved only for law enforcement, in Montgomery County. When a police officer asked the man where he worked, Shoemaker told the offer he worked for the Diplomatic Security Service and routinely trained on the range, often with officers from the Houston Police Department. Shoemaker then offered to help train Magnolia police officers.
Shoemaker shouldn’t have had a gun, as he was given deferred adjudication, convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The felony made it illegal for Shoemaker to have a gun or ammunition.
On Dec. 18, Shoemaker went back to the cops-only range. Magnolia Police, who had been suspicious of the man, called the Department of Homeland Security. The department reached out to the Diplomatic Security Police, who showed up dressed as Magnolia Police officers.
According to one of the DSS agents, Shoemaker told him the same story he told eight days earlier. The undercover agents asked to see a badge. Court documents show Shoemaker pulled out a fake one with a CIA logo.
Shoemaker was arrested. But instead of coming clean, DSS agents say Shoemaker told them he was actually working for the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA said otherwise.
A day later, federal agents raided Shoemaker’s townhome on Mill Ridge Drive in Cypress. Witnesses told KHOU 11 News the investigators stiped the unit down to its studs. Sources with the Department of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms add there was a concern there could be explosives in the home, though agents didn't find any.
In an interview with investigators, Shoemaker's girlfriend told them the 31-year-old had “numerous firearms” and “multiple” badges he used to claim he was a DSS special agent.
Now federal agents are trying to decide if Shoemaker was faking being a cop to get around his deferred adjudication while they say he drove around with guns, suppressors and bullets.
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