By Ian Demsky, The Tennessean (Tennessee)
A man posing as a police officer and using a blue light on his vehicle pulled over a Cheatham County woman Thursday night, knocked her unconscious and possibly sexually assaulted her, Metro police said yesterday.
Investigators were asking for the public’s help finding the man.
The woman, who was not identified, was driving west on U.S. 70 in a gold Infiniti sedan when a driver behind her shined a spotlight on her, flashed his lights, and then activated a blue light on the car’s dashboard, police said.
When she stopped near Harpeth Valley Road, a man dressed as an officer approached the car, asked to see her driver’s license and then ordered her out of the car.
She was struck in the back of the head and fell unconscious near her car, police said. She was not robbed.
The attacker was described as a 5-foot-10 white man with short hair above the ears. His dark uniform had a gold badge and gold lieutenant’s bars. The car was described as a large white car with no police markings.
“I’m very angry,” Chief Ronal Serpas said. “I think it’s disgusting. We work to build the public’s trust, and he pretends to be a cop.”
Other details of the case were withheld from the media to avoid jeopardizing the case while detectives followed up on several leads yesterday.
Metro police officers will be understanding if motorists driving alone, especially females, who might feel unsafe when being pulled over will drive slowly to a well-lighted, populated area before parking, he said.
“We can’t get enough phone calls on this,” Serpas said.
He urged anyone with information to call the Sex Crimes Unit at 862-7540 or Crime Stoppers at 742-7463 (74-CRIME).