Palo Alto police arrested a Redwood City man who allegedly brandished a knife inside a downtown bar, causing a disturbance, according to a police department press release.
On Tuesday, Nov. 11, at about 7:17 p.m. police received a call from an employee at The Old Pro, at 541 Ramona St., reporting that an intoxicated patron was inside causing a disturbance. The caller also said the man, later identified as 35-year-old Kristopher Joe Rivera, was armed with a knife and brandished it at someone inside the bar. When officers arrived on scene, Rivera fled on foot out the back door of the establishment. Police chased Rivera through an adjoining restaurant, which was open and where people dining inside. As Rivera ran through Vero Ristorante Italiano, at 530 Bryant St., and continued to ignore commands to stop, police deployed their Taser to take him into custody.
Rivera was transported to a local hospital by paramedics from the Palo Alto Fire Department as a precaution, as is standard procedure for the use of the Taser, police said.
Rivera sustained minor injuries to his back from the Taser probes but was otherwise uninjured. Officers located an 8-inch kitchen knife in a backpack he was carrying at the time of the arrest.
Investigators said Rivera was apparently a customer inside the bar when the disturbance started, but employees had called for police after he refused three requests to leave.
After they called police, he allegedly pulled a knife out of his backpack, showed it to a nearby patron and threatened to cut the man.
Rivera was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for felony criminal threats, misdemeanor brandishing and misdemeanor resisting arrest.
Anyone with information pertaining to this incident is asked to call the 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.
By Palo Alto Weekly staff
By Palo Alto Weekly staff
By Palo Alto Weekly staff
Don’t bring a knife to a Taser fight.
Thank you Palo Alto PD for putting this riff-raff where it belongs!
Why would someone need to carry an 8 inch knife to go to a bar if they did not have some kind of weird macho crap to prove? Carry a knife so you can continue to get more drunk after they ask you to lave?? I wonder who all he has stabbed or threatened in his 35 years on the planet? Put him away or if possible send him back to where he came from – that would be my dream act. Geeeez.
@CPA, glad I was awake at this hour to catch your comment while it lasts.