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Man arrested for impersonating officer needs help with mental illness, family says

"We don't' want him to hurt anyone. We don't want him to harm himself, and we're just trying to, like we've been pleading and trying to get him that help he needs."

JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — On Thursday,  a woman told us about her terrifying experience in Kenner, when a man pretended to be a policeman and get in her car.

On Friday, the family of the man who was arrested spoke out.

"He doesn't need to be just a common criminal. He actually has a illness and this can, could have been prevented," said Amber Ogden, the arrested man's daughter.  

The college student is shedding some light on her father's erratic behavior that terrorized the woman, who was driving with her 2-year-old, Godson, in the car in Kenner.

She says her father is a victim as well, but of a mental health system that is letting her family down.

Amber Ogden had no idea her father had been arrested for impersonating an officer until people told her about WWL-TV's story, where the victim spoke out.

SEE: Man impersonating an officer stopped after woman turns the tables

"And he was screaming at my window telling me, 'Get out, you're under arrest. Get out of the car'. And he was grabbing at my window. I had it cracked, so he's like grabbing at the window and the door handle trying to get it open, and it wouldn't open." victim Rochelle Pierre said.

Amber Ogden said her 58-year-old father, Dud Ogden, was diagnosed with the mental illness bipolar disorder when he was 19. She said he's ill, not a criminal.

"We don't' want him to hurt anyone. We don't want him to harm himself, and we're just trying to, like we've been pleading and trying to get him that help he needs, and it feels like we can't get it," Amber said.

She said her father has been in and out of mental hospitals and was just let out last week in Mississippi. She said she's lived it her whole life.

ALSO: Kenner 13-year-old accidentally shot by friend, police say

"He was around our neighborhood during (Hurricane) Katrina saying, 'Those blue tarps on the roofs are bombs.' We've had him in the yard screaming like an animal. I felt ashamed, like I grew up, I just feel ashamed, like I felt embarrassed," Ogden said, remembering her childhood.

She said the family has been working nonstop to get him in a facility, but the system has let them down.

Their attorney, Michelle Charles, said she sees this often.

"We want to definitely make sure that this family is protected. Mr. Ogden is protected, and the rest of the family is protected. It's a sad situation for the victim in the matter, but it is also, there's two victims in this case," said Michelle Charles, a private practice defense and civil right attorney, who also works with the NAACP.

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Now, Amber is trying to make sure the man she says has worked his whole life in school system, as a photographer and ordained minister, gets the medication and treatment he needs.

The Kenner Police Department said the mental health system is frustrating to law enforcement as well. Often times someone they arrested will get out of a facility in 72 hours and is back in the same area, committing the same crime.

Ogden is in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on $25,000 bond.

ALSO: Kenner teen killed after fleeing hit-and-run crash on I-10, according to State Police

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