Police imposters terrorize couple

Home doesn't feel so safe to Rafael Urrea these days. A knock on his door last week changed everything.

“They say, ‘Police!’”

Investigators say several men "posing" as police officers broke down the door into Urrea’s Beacon Hill apartment, then robbed him, his family and his friend at gunpoint. They started by ordering Urrea and his friend to the floor, then held guns to their heads and kicked them.

“They hit me in the arm,” he said. “I had a big bruise here. They hit my friend in the head a couple of times.”

A police report details a “cloth patch type badge” on the suspects’ clothing. Another eye witness described the men as wearing blue “police jackets.” They also wore masks. Urrea says the details of the uniform are a little fuzzy.

“I saw a blue jacket with a logo. That’s all. I thought they may be FBI.”

While several men beat Urrea and his friend in the living room, a robber in a back bedroom held a gun on Urrea’s girlfriend and her six-year-old son. They rifled through dresser drawers looking for cash and jewelry. Neighbor James Nsimbi says it leaves him pretty uneasy.

“My wife and i are thinking of moving,” Nsimbi said.

Urrea thinks his attackers followed him home from the Mexican restaurant where he worked. He was picking up his car at Lindo Nayarit on East Marginal Way when he noticed the men standing around eating tacos in the parking lot outside. He also remembers seeing the strange police uniforms.

Nsimbi says it turns out those men would end up taking thousands of dollars in cash, jewelry and more.

“They took his money, they stole his car keys, and after that, they came back the next day, I think nine o'clock, and just drove off with his truck,” Nsimbi said.

Detectives did track down the stolen Lincoln Navigator.

They also arrested one suspect. They are still looking for up to six other men. Several suspects appear to be white, 25-30 years old, about six feet tall and weighing about 250 pounds.

Urrea says no matter what he lost, the hardest thing to recover is that little boy’s sense of safety.

“When he say the guy pull the gun on my girlfriend, he was really scared.”