San Jose Walmart Rampage Suspect Had Numerous Arrests Since 2011
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- A man suspected of crashing an Oldsmobile into a San Jose Walmart store on Sunday and attacking several people also smashed a car into a convenience store in December and tossed a chair through a window in October, according to court documents.
Haamid Ade Zaid, 33, of Seaside, has had numerous arrests since 2011 for being under the influence of stimulants including methamphetamine and exhibiting what San Jose police reported in Santa Clara Superior Court as "paranoid" and "bizarre" behavior.
Zaid appeared in Superior Court in San Jose Tuesday on charges of being under the influence of drugs and providing false information to a peace officer in Campbell on Feb. 14 when police reported he stood in a roadway "aggressively approaching passing vehicles."
Judge Thomas C. Hastings agreed to Zaid's request through a public defender to postpone the hearing on the two charges, both misdemeanors, to April 9.
Zaid was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, hit and run and other crimes Sunday after San Jose police said he crashed his car into a Walmart store at 777 Story Road and then beat four customers with a metal object.
The district attorney's office has not yet filed charges in the pending Walmart case, but Zaid's arraignment in the proceeding has been set for Thursday at 1:30 p.m., district attorney's spokesman Sean Webby said.
Superior Court records of Zaid's five arrests in the two years before the Walmart rampage show a pattern of erratic conduct and abuse of illegal stimulants, according to police.
On July 8, 2011, at about 10 p.m., San Jose police responded to a reported burglary at 2047 Laurelie Ave. between West Hedding and Interstate Highway 880 where they encountered Zaid.
Zaid told them some burglars entered his backyard and bedroom, fired shots and kidnapped his neighbors, although police talked to his neighbors and found no evidence to support his story.
An officer described Zaid as "hysterical and (he) had difficulty relaying detail of what happened in an organized comprehendible way. He was barefoot and wild-eyed and appeared very frightened."
"It became obvious he was hallucinating," the officer wrote.
During a tour of his rented home for officers, Zaid revealed marijuana growing equipment in a room and said he had harvested plants and possessed a grow permit but did not have one, police said.
Zaid was arrested for cultivation of marijuana, possessing a stolen gun and being under the influence of a controlled substance.
On Oct. 12 last year, two waitresses at the Rosie McCann's Irish pub at the Santana Row mall in San Jose identified Zaid as the man who peered into a window shortly after 2 a.m., yelled something, flung an outdoor chair through a window and fled on foot.
San Jose police caught up with Zaid as he ran along Winchester Boulevard and later said he "was sweating profusely," had glassy eyes, dilated pupils and acted "paranoid," which police concluded were symptoms of being high on drugs.
Zaid was arrested for vandalism in breaking a window worth less than $400 and being under the influence of a controlled drug.
On Dec. 16, San Jose police took Zaid into custody after witnesses said he barreled his car through the double glass doors of a gas station convenience store at 735 W. Capitol Expressway.
At about 5:40 p.m., Zaid drove through a red light on Hillsdale Avenue and broadsided a car driving on Meridian Avenue.
He then sped away into the gas station parking lot and smashed into the glass doors "destroying several food/beverage stands (and) missing two employees inside the building," police reported.
Zaid tried to flee but was apprehended and charged with two counts of hit and run plus possessing methamphetamine and being under the influence of drugs. No one was injured in the two collisions.
On Jan. 21, police arrested Zaid for resisting arrest and being under the influence of drugs after he called officers several times about a burglary at the Laurelie house and then "was displaying objective symptoms of (illegal) stimulant use," police said.
Before his arrest, Zaid tried to flee and was "looking around as though someone was following him," appeared "extremely paranoid" and admitted to smoking methamphetamine, according to a police report.
When police took him to the Santa Clara County Jail, jailers refused to accept him due to his high heart rate, measured at 180 beats per minute, and officers transported him to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for observation.
"He told me over 50 times to watch out behind me," one officer wrote. "Zaid told me that several of the nurses were carrying guns and I needed to watch out for them."
The start of Zaid's hearing Tuesday was delayed as Zaid waited for his Oakland attorney Jeffrey Kaloustian, who he told Hastings would be there to represent him.
Kaloustian said in brief a phone interview that he was in court in Oakland Tuesday morning and could not make it to Zaid's hearing in San Jose.
The lawyer said Zaid had not retained him for the Walmart case, but that he may in the future.
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