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Inset: Latrance Battle (Bay County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Deputies arrest Battle for allegedly posing as an ICE officer (Bay County Sheriff’s Office).
Outfitted with a shirt that said “ICE” and equipped with a walkie-talkie she allegedly used for fake conversations with other agents, a Florida woman is accused of posing as a federal agent and kidnapping the wife of her ex-boyfriend.
Officers arrested 52-year-old Latrance Battle on charges of robbery by sudden snatching, kidnapping and impersonating a law enforcement officer, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.
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Deputies responded April 10 to the Bridge Plaza Apartments in Panama City Beach where they found the victim who was “shaking and appeared to be in fear,” according to a probable cause arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime. The victim told deputies she was at her job at the Days Inn in Panama City that day when a woman she did not know — later identified as Battle — wearing a black jacket, pants and hat with a white face mask and sunglasses walked inside.
The woman unzipped her jacket and showed a shirt with ICE emblazoned across the chest, the affidavit said. She also allegedly held a card that said “Sheriff’s Office.”
Unsure of what was happening, the victim told her boss she had to go with the woman she perceived as a law enforcement officer. Battle allegedly walked the victim to a car, got in the driver’s seat, and ordered the victim to get in the back seat. After the victim complied, Battle then began to drive, telling the victim that she was being taken to the sheriff’s office.
The victim, meanwhile, pulled out her phone and said she wanted to call her lawyer, but Battle “reached in the back seat and forcibly snatched [the victim’s] phone from her hands, depriving her of her iPhone 11,” the affidavit said. Battle allegedly advised the victim that she “could have her 1 phone call” when they got to the sheriff’s office.
The victim told police that at this point, she believed that Battle was “an ICE law enforcement agent,” in part because she “had a handheld radio and was talking on it to who [the victim] assume was other ‘ICE’ agents,” the affidavit said. But the victim grew suspicious after Battle drove past a location where the victim knew a sheriff’s office was located. She reportedly asked Battle “if there was a Sheriff’s Office on the beach and [Battle] confirmed there was,” the affidavit said. During this time, however, Battle “kept talking bad about [the victim’s] husband and how [the victim] now has to suffer the consequences of her husband’s actions.”
They soon arrived at an apartment complex where Battle had allegedly told the victim ICE agents would be waiting for them. After parking, Battle allegedly “instructed [the victim] to get out of the car and go to room 108,” according to the affidavit. But after Battle allegedly ran to the apartment and, according to the victim, made “a lot of noise like she was moving stuff around or talking to someone,” the victim “used this opportunity to leave” and ran to a man sitting in the parking lot and asked him for help, explaining that Battle had taken her phone.
At that point, Battle allegedly returned to her car and appeared to leave, but then returned to the parking lot, at which point the man the victim asked for help confronted Battle himself, asking her why she took the victim’s phone.
“She knows what she did,” Battle allegedly replied. The man then let the victim stay inside his apartment until law enforcement arrived. While she waited, the victim called her husband, who apparently said that from the victim’s description, the would-be ICE agent “sounded like his ex-girlfriend.”
Her husband had an injunction against Battle “for issues they have had in the past,” according to the affidavit, with the most recent incident taking place around two years ago when Battle “showed up to his place of business and attacked him.”
Officers went to the apartment and confirmed Battle lived there, but a neighbor said she wasn’t home, the affidavit said.
Deputies arrested Battle as she was on her way to Alabama, cops said. She was on probation for aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony. Battle remains in the Bay County Jail without bond.
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