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A man led Palo Alto police on a harrowing foot chase and standoff after they tried to arrest him for smashing car windows at Stanford Shopping Center on Friday. He ran across El Camino Real to a hotel balcony in Menlo Park, repeatedly threatened to shoot officers, police said Monday.
Initially reported as a disturbance, the incident rapidly escalated to involve a crisis negotiator and police taking cover, according to a press release. On Nov. 5 around 1:45 p.m., Stanford Shopping Center security personnel called police dispatchers regarding the man, who allegedly yelled at patrons, threatened passersby and spat on store windows at the mall at 180 El Camino Real.
Arriving officers found the man, who was uncooperative. He said he was waiting for a ride-share car so he could leave. Shopping center security told police they wanted to place him under a private person’s arrest if he didn’t leave the property for disrupting and interfering with business, police said.
The man then ran into the parking lot. Officers, who followed from a distance, assumed he was running to meet his ride-share car, according to police. Instead, the man allegedly swung a metal water bottle and shattered the rear windows of two unoccupied vehicles.
Police chased him to an outdoor area of the Stanford Park Hotel at 100 El Camino Real in Menlo Park. At one point, he placed his hand into his jacket pocket, said he had a gun, and threatened multiple times to shoot and kill the officers. He then climbed up to a second-floor balcony.
Officers took cover and tried to de-escalate the situation. A member of the police crisis negotiation team spoke with the man in an attempt to negotiate a compliant arrest. When the man refused commands and the negotiations failed, police fired less-lethal pepperball rounds at a wall near him to see if the pepper spray would encourage compliance or move him off the balcony. The method was unsuccessful, so officers fired a less-lethal projectile weapon that struck him in the hip area.
The man then surrendered without further incident. Police found he did not have any weapons in his possession. Personnel from the Menlo Park Fire Protection District transported him to a hospital for a medical clearance prior to booking, which is standard procedure when someone is exposed to chemical agents or is struck with a less-lethal projectile, police said. The man suffered a visible injury to his hip area but was otherwise uninjured. Officers were not injured.
Police booked the 32-year-old Campbell resident into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of felony vandalism, misdemeanor obstructing a business establishment and misdemeanor resisting arrest.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the department’s 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent by text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the police’s free mobile app, downloadable at bit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay.
Editor’s note: Palo Alto Online’s policy is to withhold the names of those arrested for most crimes until the District Attorney has determined there is sufficient evidence to file charges in the case. Read our guidelines.
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