Off-duty Altus military policeman accused of impersonating a police officer

An Altus man is free on $2,000 bond after he was accused of impersonating a police officer and conducting a traffic stop.

He told police he was an off-duty military police officer from the Altus Air Force Base and believed he needed to intervene with an erratic driver.

Daviyhn Adams, 24, made his initial appearance Friday in Comanche County District Court where he received misdemeanor charges of impersonating a public officer and impersonating a public officer by vehicle, records indicate. The vehicular charge is punishable by up to one year in the county jail.

Lawton police began investigating on Sept. 19 after being called by a man who said an unmarked vehicle had stopped him near the intersection of Northwest 26th Street and Rogers Lane.

The man said Adams had used the lights and equipment on his police car to get him to stop at Northwest 38th Street. He claimed during the stop, Adams accused him of driving while intoxicated and asked him to exit the vehicle to conduct a field sobriety test, the probable cause affidavit states. When the man said he wanted to call 911 because he was unsure if Adams was a real officer, to which, Adams responded it was “probably a good idea” and left, Detective Michael Arzola stated.

The man told Arzola he didn’t feel free to leave after Adams had told him he was a federal police officer with jurisdiction in the area, according to the affidavit.

Adams told Arzola he’d felt the need to intervene because he was an off-duty Altus Air Force Base military police officer and the driver was being erratic and his passenger was hanging out of one of the windows, the affidavit states.

Free on a $2,000 bond, Adams returns to court at 9 a.m. Nov. 29 for the sounding of the jury docket, records indicate.