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A 28-year-old San Jose man tried to provoke a confrontation with Palo Alto police last week and became increasingly abusive before allegedly attempting to drive his vehicle into a police cruiser, according to a police department statement released on Sept. 30.
The incident began on Wednesday, Sept. 22, at about 3:59 p.m. A police supervisor on routine patrol was driving a cruiser south in the 1400 block of El Camino Real, just south of Stanford Stadium, when a man driving a black 2019 Lincoln MKT SUV drove next to the cruiser and began shouting obscenities at the supervisor. There had been no prior contact between the man and the supervisor and they were not known to each other, the press release stated.
The supervisor slowed down, hoping the man would drive away. Instead, the man abruptly and unsafely cut off the police car. The man stopped his SUV in the roadway and got out to challenge the supervisor, continuing to shout obscenities.
Other arriving officers found the man pacing back and forth in the roadway. After attempting to de-escalate the situation, the supervisor instructed the officers to leave the scene, since the man wasn’t asking for assistance and appeared intent on provoking a confrontation.
Officers and the supervisor were to meet in a nearby parking lot on the opposite side of the street to debrief about the incident. As one of the departing officers pulled into the left turn lane from southbound El Camino Real to eastbound Park Boulevard, the man jumped into his SUV and followed behind the officer, who had stopped at a red light. He continued to shout obscenities and make gestures out of his window at the officer. Other officers who were on their way to meet at the parking lot were behind the man in the turn lane.
When the traffic signal turned green, the man followed the first officer, who was making a U-turn to head north on El Camino Real. The man pulled up quickly to the officer in an adjacent lane, abruptly swerved his vehicle into the officer’s lane and aimed directly at the officer’s driver-side door. Trying to avoid being struck, the officer almost drove off the roadway.
The other officers, who were behind the man, managed to stop his SUV after it traveled a short distance. The man again exited his car and continued to challenge the police and shout obscenities. He initially complied with police as they attempted to arrest him, but he then pulled away, clenched his fists and took a fighting stance, according to police.
The officers continued to try to verbally de-escalate the situation and attempted to negotiate with the man to comply with being arrested. When it looked like he was about to flee on foot, officers tried to take him into custody, and the man resisted. The officers were eventually able to handcuff him without use of weapons, the police stated.
The man sustained a scrape on his head and a scrape on one shoulder as a result of the struggle. He was transported by the Palo Alto Fire Department to a local hospital for medical treatment. Four officers received minor scrapes and cuts; two were treated at a local hospital for those injuries and released, police said.
The man was allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, an investigation found. Officers found numerous open and partially consumed cans of beer in the front passenger seat of his car and marijuana cigarettes in the center console, they said.
Police booked him into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for felony assault with a deadly weapon and two misdemeanors: resisting arrest and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
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.
This could have turned violent. It sounds like the police did a good job to not incite this guy, and in the end brought him under control when it was clear that was needed.
Good job PAPD. Glad no one was seriously injured.
My best guess is that this that “this man” was a white man–but I could be wrong. (The default “descriptor” is “white”, otherwise ethnicity would have been mentioned in the article . . )
I *am* to relieved PAPD dealt with a horrible situation peacefully–another reason I assume the 28-year-old was a pale person–but without more, just good on PAPD for not shooting the angry man.
Would like to know what was happening at Alma and Churchill on Wed. the 29th around 9:30 a.m.–but guess Palo Alto online didn’t know.
Sounds like the Palo Alto police played it by the book, trying hard to “de-escalate” the situation. You can’t fix crazy!
Seems like the PAPD did an excellent job and deserves credit for this. Think about what would have happened if this had been in Georgia or Texas and the man had been black!