Armed Citizen Defends Himself, Others From Police Impersonator

By Cam Edwards

Residents inside an apartment in Espanola, New Mexico were forced to defend themselves from two men posing as law enforcement who tried to break into their home in the early morning hours of August 8th.

Natasha Decosta reported to police someone was trying to break into her apartment at the Vista del Rio Apartments on Avenida Cañada.

“Someone is trying to break into an apartment, she advised they are pounding on the door, kicking the door trying to get in,” dispatch logs state. “There are two guys who don’t live there and they are saying they are from (FBI High Intensity Drug Task Force) Region Three. She doesn’t think they are cops.”

The men who were trying to get into the apartment were not law enforcement, Apodaca said, although they did identify themselves that way to Decosta and other tenants.

31-year old Daniel Padilla was one of the two suspects, and according to Espanola PD Sgt. Jeremy Apodaca, he had armed himself with a pellet gun with a laser pointer taped to the barrel in an attempt to make the tenants inside believe he was armed. Turns out, that was a fatal mistake.

Alex Lucero, who lived at the apartment, was armed, …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms