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Palo Alto police arrested two felony fraud suspects and seized a loaded handgun on Friday night, July 7, after a one-mile pursuit during which the alleged criminals rammed their truck into patrol cars twice, injuring two officers and setting one car on fire, police said.
An employee at First Tech Federal Credit Union, located at the Palo Alto Square at 3000 El Camino Real, called police at about 5 p.m. to report that a man was attempting to fraudulently withdraw money from an account that wasn't his. The employee then told dispatchers that the man was leaving in a vehicle.
A responding patrol officer arrived within a minute and spotted the suspect's black Ford F-150 pickup truck in the credit union's parking lot. The officer positioned his marked patrol car behind the truck, and the suspect abruptly reversed the truck, striking the front of the patrol car. The officer was uninjured, but the car sustained moderate damage. The suspect drove forward over a curb and sped off with officers in pursuit.
Officers chased the truck about one mile into the Evergreen Park neighborhood, until it reached a dead end on the 400 block of Leland Avenue, where it drove into a driveway.
Officers pulled in behind the truck and were rammed when the man drove the truck in reverse. He hit the front of the patrol car with enough force to deploy the police car's airbags and ignite a fire in the engine compartment. Both he and his passenger were unable to drive any farther and were detained without any further incident, police said.
The second patrol vehicle sustained extensive damage. One officer in the second patrol car suffered a broken hand bone and abrasions; a second officer in the car had abrasions to the face, police said. Both were treated and released at a local hospital. Neither suspect was injured.
Police found a loaded handgun, narcotics and numerous fraudulently manufactured identification cards inside the truck. Investigators later determined the truck was also fraudulently obtained using another person’s personal identifying information.
Officers booked a 39-year-old man into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for eight felony charges, including two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, reckless evading, carrying a concealed firearm, being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance while armed, and false impersonation. He was booked for an additional four misdemeanors including: false identification to police and resisting arrest.
The man was also booked for three outstanding felony warrants and two outstanding misdemeanor arrest warrants out of Sacramento Police Department and Sacramento County for offenses including narcotics possession, fraud, evading, resisting arrest, illegal weapons possession and violation of probation.
Police booked the 27-year-old female passenger for two felonies: identity theft and false impersonation and two misdemeanors: resisting arrest and false identification to police; and two felony warrants out of Sacramento County for check fraud. Both arrestees declined to provide their city of residence, police said.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to the Palo Alto Police Department's 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent by text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.
Editor's Note: The Almanac'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. See our guidelines here.
