Two Suspects Rob Man at Gunpoint
Published on April 15, 2022
Palo Alto, CA – Two suspects armed with handguns robbed a man at gunpoint this evening. The victim was not physically injured, and the suspects fled in a vehicle.
On Friday, April 15, 2022, at about 6:31 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call reporting an armed robbery that had occurred about 15 minutes earlier in the 900 block of Bryant Street. The victim reported that the suspects had fled in a black two-door vehicle.
The investigation revealed that the victim, a man in his thirties, had just parked in the driveway of his home and had opened the rear door of his vehicle to get his young relative out of the backseat. The suspect vehicle then pulled up nearby, and a passenger got out and approached him. That suspect pointed a pistol at the victim and demanded his property. The victim complied and handed over his wristwatch, noting that the driver of the suspect vehicle had remained in the car but was also pointing a handgun at him. The suspects then drove away. The child remained in the vehicle during the crime and was not addressed by the suspects.
The victim described the suspects as unknown age males wearing ski masks. The victim said the passenger was of unknown race but had a light to medium complexion. The victim said the driver was possibly a black male. Their two-door coupe had tinted windows.
Police also investigated a suspicious circumstances case earlier in the evening that likely involved the same suspects. At about 6:20 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a report from staff at Patagonia at 525 Alma Street that just before 6:00 p.m., two men had been sitting in their car (a black two-door Honda Accord with tinted windows) in front of the store for an extended length of time. As one of them eventually opened the car door, they happened to make an eye contact with a uniformed security guard standing nearby. The man chose to remain in the vehicle, which then immediately drove off and headed eastbound on University Avenue. The security guard recorded the license plate on the car, and police learned that license plate had been reported stolen out of Oakland and did not belong on a Honda.
At about 7:07 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call of auto burglaries in progress at the Stanford Shopping Center at 180 El Camino Real, where the suspect vehicle was described as a black Honda with tinted windows. Officers responded and located the vehicle, which immediately fled from officers, narrowly avoiding striking several pedestrians as it did so. Officers pursued the suspect vehicle, ultimately choosing to end the pursuit on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park as the suspects were driving recklessly.
Subsequent investigation revealed that the vehicle involved was a two-door Honda Civic, and had a license plate on it that had been reported stolen out of San Francisco. The investigation also revealed that no auto burglaries had actually occurred, but rather the two suspects from that Honda had been witnessed peering into windows of parked cars as if they were looking for items to steal. Police now believe this was a separate suspect vehicle and do not know if it was connected to either the robbery or the suspicious circumstances case at Patagonia, but the investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with information about any of these incidents is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.