A bicyclist who ran a red light in Palo Alto July 25 was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer. Palo Alto Officer Sandra Brown, who was on a bicycle herself, saw Douglas Dixon, 25, of Palo Alto run a red light on University Avenue at Bryant Street about 9:30 a.m. that day and told Dixon to stop. They rode along on University Avenue, with Brown repeating her order until "he threw her hand off his arm, and the fight was on," said Detective Jim Coffman. Dixon was subdued by officers at the University Avenue underpass and arrested, charged with assault on a police officer and failing to yield to a police officer. Coffman said it was Brown's second bicycle pursuit.
A man trying to cash a stolen check at a Palo Alto bank July 24 led officers on a foot chase before he was arrested. Anthony William Scott, 36, described as a transient, allegedly tried to cash the stolen check at the First Nationwide Bank at El Camino Real and California Avenue about 10 a.m. that day, said Detective Jim Coffman. Bank employees called police, and when Scott saw Officer Dana de la Rocha on the street outside, he ran out the door. De la Rocha gave chase. Coffman said police sealed off the immediate area and brought in a canine unit, and Dixon was later found in the yard of a home on Grant Avenue. Even then, Coffman said, Scott refused to give up, and police had to use pepper spray to subdue him. He was charged with possession of a stolen check and resisting arrest.
An East Palo Alto man was shot and wounded as he was coming home from work July 25. Eladio Lopez, 42, told police he had parked his car on West Bayshore Road at 9:30 p.m. and thought he heard firecrackers while he was walking to his apartment, said Sgt. Don O'Keefe of the East Palo Alto Regional Investigative Bureau. Lopez then saw four young men running down a driveway, and one of them turned and fired a handgun at him, wounding him in his leg. Lopez was taken to Kaiser Hospital in Redwood City and treated and released. Anyone who saw the shooting is asked to call O'Keefe or Detective Gregg Reich at 321-1112.
Palo Alto police arrested a San Jose man for hitting a security guard with a metal bar July 20. Thuan Nguyen Hoang, 23, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after he hit a security guard outside The Edge nightclub on California Avenue about 11:30 p.m. that night, said Detective Jim Coffman. When police arrived to arrest Hoang, several other fights broke out and five other San Jose men were arrested on minor charges.
Menlo Park police arrested two juveniles for setting a fire at Menlo Park's Hillview School July 12. The two youths apparently broke into a storage shed at the school on Elder Avenue, removed a can of lighter fluid, and used it to set a fire on the school's tennis courts at 3 a.m., said Commander Dominick Peloso. The two youths were charged with burglary and released to the custody of their parents.
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