Palo Alto Police Arrest Suspect In Sexual Assault On Teen
PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- Police arrested a male suspect Sunday morning in connection with the sexual assault of a high school-aged jogger in Palo Alto last month.
On Wednesday, March 28, 2018 at about 1:47 p.m., the Palo Alto Police Department's dispatch center received a 9-1-1 call from a passerby reporting an assault that had happened near the intersection of Arastradero Road and Deer Creek Road. Officers responded to the area immediately and located a high school-aged juvenile female victim.
Paramedics from the Palo Alto Fire Department transported the victim to a local hospital for treatment.
The preliminary investigation showed that the victim had been jogging westbound on the pedestrian/bicycle path that runs parallel to Arastradero Road. The suspect emerged from the greenbelt and pulled the victim off of the path, placed a gun to her head and sexually assaulted her.
After the assault, the suspect fled the scene on foot, and the victim flagged down a passerby to call for help.
During the ensuing investigation, Palo Alto police detectives developed information identifying the suspect as 29-year-old Richmond resident Eduardo Antonio Chavarria-Diaz. Detectives also developed information linking him to a similar assault that occurred in Oakland on March 4 in the jurisdiction of the East Bay Regional Park District Police Department.
After Palo Alto police detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Chavarria-Diaz. Sunday morning at about 11 a.m., Palo Alto police and investigators from the East Bay Regional Park District Police Department arrested Chavarria-Diaz
without incident at a residence in the 100 block of South 9th Street in Richmond.
Police booked Chavarria-Diaz into the Santa Clara County Main Jail pursuant to the warrant, charging him with assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, and sexual penetration by force -- all felonies -- in connection with the attack that occurred in Palo Alto on March 28.
Additional charges for the crime in Oakland may be forthcoming. Detectives are continuing to investigate to determine if the suspect may be responsible for any other unsolved crimes. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Palo Alto police at 650-329-2413.
