San Leandro police arrested an Oakland man Saturday for allegedly impersonating a police officer, a crime Berkeley police also accuse him of doing last month.
Sergio Taylor, 20, was arrested after officers assigned to patrol San Leandro’s annual Cherry Festival saw him wearing a “K-9 Unit” police-style uniform with a duty belt, firearm, ammunition, Taser stun gun and a German Shepherd dog.
Officers recognized Taylor from an alert Berkeley police sent out to regional law enforcement agencies about his involvement in a May 12 incident at Kip’s Bar & Grill located at 2439 Durant Ave.
Before San Leandro officers could stop Taylor, he got into 2013 Ford Taurus with security markings on it similar to police cars and drove away with 39-year-old John Payne, police said.
Police said they stopped the car and took Taylor into custody without incident. Officers then searched the car and found a replica firearm hidden under the front seat loaded with ammunition, even though it would not have been capable of firing it.
Police also said they found additional ammunition in pouches on Taylor’s person. Police brought Taylor and Payne to be booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
In the earlier case, Berkeley police spokesman Officer Byron White wrote on Twitter that officers had responded to a report at 1:27 a.m. on May 12 of a fight involving more than 50 people at Kip’s Bar & Grill. Officers saw Taylor wearing a detailed imitation police uniform. Detectives who later reviewed video footage from that night saw Taylor pointing his gun at people inside the bar, White said.
The detectives discovered that Taylor was prohibited from having a Taser or firearm, then obtained a warrant for his arrest and sent the alert to other Bay Area agencies.
Investigators learned that Taylor had been convicted and granted probation in Alameda County following a December 2017 arrest in San Leandro. In that case, Taylor impersonated a uniformed federal law enforcement officer while buying a used motorcycle from a man and paid with a fraudulent $10,000 check. He activated emergency lights and a siren in his car as he drove away, San Leandro police said.
Police later searched Taylor’s Oakland home, recovering the stolen motorcycle and police equipment.
San Leandro police ask anyone with information about Taylor or Payne to contact them at (510) 577-2740.
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