Dallas County deputy constable arrested after cousin posed as ‘police’ at event where three people shot
Dallas County TX September 6 2019
A Dallas County deputy constable was arrested after she failed to report a shooting Sunday at an event where she was hired to work security, police say.
Denisse Escobedo, 31, is accused of hiring her cousin in place of a police officer and failing to report a shooting that left three men injured.
According to an arrest warrant, Escobedo was originally hired, along with other law enforcement, to work security over the weekend at a private event in Pleasant Grove.
When one of the officers backed out the day before the party, Escobedo asked her cousin, Ramiro Vielma III, to step in, knowing that “he is not a peace officer,” the warrant says.
At the event, Escobedo and Vielma wore black shirts with the word “police” written on the front in white and all caps. The two cousins were assigned to work the gate at the entrance of the party with a third unidentified man who was wearing a vest.
At about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, Escobedo stopped a truck with four people inside, the warrant says.
Marco Faz, who was behind the wheel of the truck at the time, later told police that Escobedo asked for his license to check his age. He said she acknowledged he was over 21 but then asked about a case of Modelo beer inside his truck.
Escobedo told the unidentified man who was working the gate with her to confiscate the beer. Once the beer was removed from the truck, Escobedo told Faz he needed to leave the premise, the warrant says.
Faz told police he asked to see Escobedo’s official badge but she refused to show him and threatened to write him a ticket for an open container if he didn’t leave immediately.
He said he then drove forward toward a dead-end and turned his truck around to leave the area.
But as Faz tried to drive away, he said, Escobedo and the unidentified man wearing the vest began flashing lights at his truck and ordered him to stop.
“Faz stated that he was scared since the officers already had illegally taken his beer and he didn’t believe they were ‘real police,'” the warrant says.
He told police he continued to drive forward slowly, and as he passed, Escobedo and the other man banged their flashlights and the butt of a gun on the truck’s windows. The driver said at one point he looked back and he saw both Escobedo and the unidentified man reach toward their belts.
After Faz passed them, shots were fired at the truck, striking him in the right earlobe, hitting a passenger in the left hand, and another passenger in the shoulder.
Faz said he drove to Baylor University Medical Center and dropped off one of the injured passengers.
Authorities say he then dropped off his truck at home and returned to the hospital with his other injured passenger.
Investigators said all four men inside the truck gave the same account of what happened early that morning.
In an interview with police later that night, Escobedo said she was working the gate of the event with her cousin and the unidentified man who was wearing a vest.
She told police that she was stopping vehicles and confiscating alcohol from people under the age of 21. According to the warrant, she initially said she couldn’t recall stopping Faz but later said she remembered stopping a truck and telling someone who may have been Faz to leave.
Escobedo said after she told the driver to leave, she walked away and heard the gunshots, which is when she decided to shut down the party.
Police were unable to determine who fired the shots but based on witness reports, investigators determined they believed Escobedo “was at the very least standing next to the shooter when the shots were fired.”
The warrant also noted that she failed to report the shooting and didn’t attempt to arrest the shooter.
Escobedo was booked into the Dallas County jail on a felony charge of impersonating a public servant and misdemeanor counts of official oppression and failure to report a felony resulting in serious bodily injury.
Vielma was also charged with impersonating a public servant.
Both Escobedo and Vielma were released after posting bond.
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