Palo Alto police arrest suspect following battery, attempted carjacking
PALO ALTO -- Police in Palo Alto arrested a man Thursday afternoon suspected of attacking two SamTrans bus drivers and attempting to carjack a vehicle after fleeing from officers on foot, authorities said.
Late Thursday afternoon at around 4:48 p.m., Palo Alto police dispatch received a call from the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office Transit Police Bureau reporting a disturbance on board a SamTrans bus in the area of Quarry Road and Arboretum Road, near the border of Palo Alto and Stanford University.
An arriving officer saw the male suspect on foot running onto the property at 620 Sand Hill Road and was able to detain the suspect without incident. Police said the suspect showed signs of being under the influence of narcotics and handed the officer a pipe commonly used to smoke methamphetamine. Other officers interviewing two SamTrans drivers at the original scene learned the suspect had battered both victims. When police moved to handcuff the suspect, he fled on foot.
Police later determined the suspect had forced open the doors of an out-of-service SamTrans bus occupied by a female transit driver in her thirties. Concerned for her safety, the driver ordered him to leave the bus multiple times before he complied. She then got off the bus as well and flagged down a second SamTrans transit driver, a man in his twenties, for assistance.
The suspect spat in the face of the female driver. When the male driver came to her aid, the suspect lunged at him before grabbing him. The male driver was able to shove the suspect off him, at which point the suspect fled as the drivers summoned police. Neither driver was physically injured
Officers chased the suspect along Sand Hill Road and saw him open the passenger side door of a blue 2011 BMW sedan stopped on Vineyard Lane at Sand Hill Road that was occupied by a woman in her fifties. The suspect entered the vehicle with the woman and grabbed the steering wheel in what police believe was an attempt to carjack a vehicle to escape the scene, but without anywhere to go and officers quickly approaching, the suspect got out of the victim's car and kept running. The driver later told police she thought the suspect was going to harm her, but she was uninjured.
Officers were ultimately able to catch the suspect in the parking lot on the west side of Neiman Marcus at the Stanford Shopping Center and took him custody after a brief struggle. While neither the suspect nor officers were injured during the chase or arrest, police summoned paramedics to the scene after the suspect's breathing appeared to be labored.
The suspect was cleared by Palo Alto Fire Department personnel after medically evaluating him and he was taken into custody. Once back at the police station for processing, the suspect refused to cooperate with officers, giving multiple false names. He also claimed to have medical issues with his heart, leading police to summon paramedics for assistance a second time.
Personnel from the Palo Alto Fire Department transported him to a local hospital for evaluation, where he was medically cleared for incarceration. He was later identified as 26-year-old transient Joshua Downs and was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for felony carjacking and six misdemeanors -- two counts of battery on a transit employee, delaying a transit system, resisting arrest, providing false information to police, and possession of narcotics paraphernalia.
Anyone with information about this incident 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.
