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A Menlo Park man in his late 70s shot and killed himself Friday afternoon in a parking lot of Palo Alto’s Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto police Sgt. Sandra Brown said.

The name of the man is not being released.

There was an adult witness to the 4 p.m. suicide, Sgt. Brown said.

“There were a lot of people around,” she added. “We had to close the park down for awhile.”

— Don Kazak, Palo Alto Weekly

— Don Kazak, Palo Alto Weekly

— Don Kazak, Palo Alto Weekly

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6 Comments

  1. My nephew’s father-in-law witnessed the suicide – the elderly man came up to him to ask him to dial 911 then walked away and pulled the trigger.
    The witness tried in vain to call 911 for twenty minutes before getting thru — busy signals then transfered from East Palo Alto to Palo Alto police — then the police couldn’t find them — in all it too almost one hour before the police arrived.
    Shouldn’t our 911 system work better than this? What if someone were in danger, or could have been saved. My friend reports that the police did an excellent job once they arrived.

    Michele Slow 911 Response, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood of Palo Alto

  2. Here is the deal…when you use a cell phone to call 911 it goes to Vacaville CHP dispatch. Then they, from there, have to try to figure out what jurisdiction it is in and the appropriate agency to call. Everyone should program the local PD telephone numbers into their cell phone or call information and be transferred to the agency where you are. The delay was not the fault of the responding agency. The reason for the long hold is all cell phone 911 calls go to this center. Some idiots use 911 to ask for directions or to simplly call in NON EMERGENCY calls. Everyone should respect 911 for what it is…for EMERGENCIES ONLY. Hope this clears it up for you Michele.

  3. A great idea for everyone is to have their local (and perhaps even surrounding city) police dept # programmed into your cell phone for faster response. It is the unfortunate truth that calling 911 from your cell often takes too long to be of any immediate help.

  4. It’s a great idea. Program in the police dispatch numbers for the places you work, live or frequent. I live and work in Menlo Park, but my home is in unincorporated West Menlo, so I have the San Mateo County Sheriff’s number as well as the Menlo Park police in my cell phone.

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