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A 19-year-old from East Palo Alto faces felony charges after allegedly threatening and beating two Palo Alto High School classmates with a gun last year at a gathering in unincorporated Menlo Park.
Last December, Hector Guzman Alcantar, then 18, showed up with two other people around 3 a.m. to a gathering hosted by a Palo Alto High School classmate, then 20, who lives in unincorporated Menlo Park near Alpine Road. Another classmate had invited Alcantar via Snapchat, according to prosecutors at the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Shortly after one of the classmates started to roll a marijuana cigarette, Alcantar allegedly pulled a pistol out of his pants and pointed it at his two classmates.
Alcantar allegedly demanded that they give him marijuana and other possessions and proceeded to hit one of the classmates in the head repeatedly, and hit the other classmate in the head as well, according to prosecutors. The person hit repeatedly required medical attention at the Stanford Hospital emergency room.
Alcantar then left the scene with the two other people he’d brought, taking a red laptop and a large container of marijuana, prosecutors said.
Upon searching Alcantar’s house later, authorities found an unregistered black pistol with a loaded magazine, prosecutors said.
Alcantar faces four felony charges: home invasion robbery, two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, and criminal threats, with a series of enhancements that could lengthen his potential sentence.
The case has been scheduled for jury trial Oct. 15. He is not in custody after posting $100,000 bail.
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