Police supply shop owner arrested in impersonation of officer

SMYRNA, Ga. — The former owner of a police supply shop found himself under arrest by some of his former customers.
 
John Carmichael is accused of pretending to be a cop, pulling over a driver and holding her at gunpoint.
 
What looks very much like a police car sits in John Carmichael's driveway just outside the intersection where police say he pulled someone over and held the female driver at gunpoint.
 
Carmichael had allegedly heard on a police radio that the victim was following a suspected DUI hit-and-run driver near his house and leapt into action.
 
The 39-year-old Smyrna man had for years owned a company that helped local police departments and others install radios, lights and sirens.
 
The real cops visited his shop Wednesday.
 
"And they were upstairs in the back getting boxes and stuff and I guess whatever was going on with whoever owns this business, it wasn't good," Witness Andre Batson told Channel 2's Ross Cavitt.
 
Batson works next door to Carmichael's former police equipment business and says it's been closed for months
 
He says he always wondered about all the police gear and worries that fake officers pulling over citizens will only add to fear and mistrust.
 
"I don't know who you are. Are you for real? I mean you've had reports from different cities of people wanting to be cops, toy cops as you would call them, pulling people over and harming them. What is the police force going to do about that?" Batson said.
 
Carmichael has bonded out of the Cobb County Jail under $10,000 bond. He was charged with aggravated assault and impersonating a police officer.

WSBTV