Police arrested a man late on Sunday night who broke into an occupied home and fled the scene after a resident confronted him and was physically assaulted. Both the victim and suspect sustained minor injuries. Police booked the suspect into jail.
On Sunday, January 9, 2022, at about 11:45 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call from a woman in her thirties reporting an in-progress residential burglary at her home in the 1100 block of Oregon Avenue. Officers responded immediately and learned that the suspect had just fled on foot. An officer located the suspect walking on a nearby off-ramp from U.S. Highway 101 and detained him without incident at 11:50 p.m.
The investigation revealed that the reporting party had received a notification from her security camera of motion detected at her front door, and then heard breaking glass. She immediately screamed, causing her husband (a man in his thirties) to run downstairs to investigate. She then called the police. The husband and wife were at home with their two children, both under the age of eight. The wife stayed with their children to keep them safe.
The husband discovered an unknown man standing outside their shattered glass front door, holding a large pair of hedge shears. The suspect continued smashing the glass out of the door with the shears, and eventually stepped into the home. The husband shouted at the suspect to get out of his house. The suspect swung the hedge shears three or four times at the husband but did not hit him. The husband was able to grab the shears and take them away from the suspect, and then use them to strike the suspect in the shoulder once. This caused the suspect to walk out the front door and leave the area on foot.
Paramedics treated both the male victim and the suspect for minor cuts caused by the broken glass from the shattered front door. Neither man’s physical injuries required transportation to a hospital.
Police determined that the suspect showed objective signs of being under the influence of narcotics. Officers booked the suspect, 26-year-old Alexis Gomez Quezada of Half Moon Bay, into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for residential burglary (a felony), assault with a deadly weapon (a felony), and being under the influence of narcotics (a misdemeanor). His booking photo is available on our website at https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/News-Articles/Police-Department/Police-Arrest-Late-Night-Residential-Burglar.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to [email protected] or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.
