BRANT COUNTY -- A 20-year-old Brant County resident, Garitt Smits, has pleaded guilty to impersonating a police officer after he pulled over a real officer in the summer of 2019.
It happened on August 30, at around 12:30 p.m., when Smits stopped Waterloo regional police officer Brad Finucan at Drumbo and Ayr roads in Brant County.
“A vehicle came up behind me with flashing emergency lights, it was not a marked patrol vehicle,” Funican recalls. “He jumped out in full police gear out of his vehicle with his handgun out … as far as I was concerned, it was real.”
Smits told Funican he was an auxiliary police officer and was stopping him for speeding.
“He was pointing it at my chest … I simply told him I was a real police officer and he isn’t,” said Funican.
Funican, currently on leave with the Waterloo Regional Police Service, said he was able to successfully disarm the imposter and discovered the weapon was actually a BB gun.
Smits, then 19-years-old, later turned himself in to police.
On Friday, he pleaded guilty to two charges: possession of a dangerous weapon and falsely representing himself as a police officer.
Finucan shared a victim impact statement and said he is terrified that an incident like this could have happened to his two teenage daughters.
“They wouldn’t have the experience or the knowledge to safely deal with that situation,” said Finucan. “It hit me, professionally and personally … I don’t believe it’s taken seriously enough.”
Finucan said incidents like this seem even more serious in light of the Nova Scotia mass murders by a man impersonating an R.C.M.P. officer in 2020.
In a virtual court appearance, Smits said: “I’m sorry and I regret the whole thing, I look back at it … I don’t know why I did it.”
Smits has been sentenced to 12 months of probation. He's required to do 90 hours of community service in the Burford area and to accept counselling. He is also prohibited to own any weapons and police paraphernalia.
