Man accused of impersonating cop, handcuffing child

HOUSTON – A man accused of pretending to be a police officer and trying to arrest a teenage boy has been charged.

Brandon Armando Garcia-Orta was charged with unlawful restraint of a child and impersonating a police officer.

According to investigators, Garcia-Orta posed as a police officer on May 18 and handcuffed a boy, 16, who was asleep outside a Shell station on South Main Street and Chimney Rock Road in southwest Houston.

Garcia-Orta then called the teen's mother and told her to pick him up from the gas station or he'd file charges, police said.

Garcia-Orta was released from jail after posting a $7,000 bond.