A South San Francisco man has been arrested in connection with an April 2022 robbery at gunpoint of a Palo Alto resident who had just parked in his driveway and was taking a child out of the rear seat of his car.

Palo Alto police arrested Tommy Walter Miller, 25, without incident at the Palo Alto Courthouse at 270 Grant Ave. on Wednesday, June 7, and booked him into the Santa Clara County Main Jail, according to a police press release.

Palo Alto police say detectives have also connected Miller to four auto burglaries from 2022 that occurred in Palo Alto on March 30, April 13 (two cases) and April 15. The last one occurred at 451 Ramona St. and was reported at about 9 p.m., according to police records.

In the auto burglaries, the windows of parked and unoccupied vehicles in downtown Palo Alto were smashed and property from the vehicles, including multiple laptop computers, was stolen. The property value totaled more than $11,000, the police stated.

The armed robbery took place on April 15, 2022, at about 6:15 p.m. in the 900 block of Bryant Street. The victim, a man in his 30s, had just parked when a black, two-door vehicle pulled up nearby, and a passenger got out and approached the man.

The suspect pointed a pistol at the victim and demanded his property. The victim handed over his wristwatch, noting that the driver of the vehicle, now identified as Miller, remained in the car but was also allegedly pointing a handgun at him. The robbers then drove away.

After conducting an extensive follow-up investigation, detectives identified Miller as a suspect. Police submitted the case to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office for review, and on June 5, detectives obtained an arrest warrant from the Santa Clara County Superior Court for one count of robbery and four counts of auto burglary.

Detectives are continuing to actively investigate the robbery in an effort to identify and arrest the second suspect, police stated.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Palo Alto Police Department's 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984.

Editor's Note: Palo Alto Online'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. However, among our exceptions is a case in which police have conducted an extensive investigation, as was the situation here. See our guidelines here.