A 30-year veteran of the Walnut Creek, California police force is accused of attacking a woman with a baseball bat while wearing a mask to conceal his identity.

According to KTVU, Richmond, California police arrested 53-year-old Gregory Thompson at around 2:00 A.M. on Aug. 16 after residents called police to report a woman screaming.

“We’d already gone to bed, kept hearing a banging, thumping noise,” said Richmond resident Carus Culver.

ADVERTISEMENT

Neighbor Jason Peneyra said, “Police came knocking on our doors. They were looking for a suspect.”

Richmond police said they found Thompson sitting in his car. He identified himself as an officer of the law, but investigators found a mask lying in the floorboard of the vehicle and a baseball bat in the trunk.

“It’s alarming for a police officer to do that,” said Peneyra to KTVU. “That’s weird. That’s really weird.”

Richmond Police Capt. Bisa French said, “We don’t have a motive in this case, but we’re looking at the possibility this was mistaken identity, or someone else was supposed to be targeted. We just don’t know.”

Neighbors said that Thompson’s parents own a house in the neighborhood that is currently standing empty. They said they have noticed broken windows in the property and other minor acts of vandalism.

ADVERTISEMENT

If that’s the case, Culver said, “You call the police, you don’t take matters into your own hands and act violently.”

The woman Thompson attacked and another woman who attempted to intervene reportedly received minor injuries. Both are suspected to fully recover.

Watch video about this story, embedded below:

ADVERTISEMENT

[image of masked man with baseball bat via Shutterstock.com]