Police arrested a man for a hate crime Friday morning after he harassed a woman outside City Hall while yelling a racial epithet.
On Friday, January 24, 2025, at about 7:00 a.m., an off-duty Palo Alto police officer was flagged down on the 600 block of Ramona Street by a woman reporting that she was being chased by a man. On-duty officers responded to the area but did not locate the man.
The investigation revealed that, at about 6:55 a.m., the victim, a woman in her forties, was walking through the Civic Center Plaza located at 250 Hamilton Avenue. As she approached the front entrance to City Hall, a man rushed toward her, aggressively blocked her path, and yelled a racial epithet directed at Asian people. Fearing for her safety, the victim fled on foot with the suspect in tow, still yelling. Once she reached the street, the suspect stopped following.
As officers were speaking to the victim, our 24-hour dispatch center received a call of a man harassing customers and walking in and out of traffic in front of the Town and Country Shopping Center on the 00 block of Embarcadero Road. Officers responded to that location, detained the man, and determined that he was the suspect from the Civic Center Plaza incident. No new crime had occurred at Town and Country.
Police booked 44-year-old Gavin Lamar Mour of Palo Alto into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for malicious obstruction and a hate crime (both misdemeanors).
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 paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.
To read this release on the city webpage, click here:https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/News-Articles/Police-Department/Man-Arrested-following-Hate-Crime-outside-City-Hall
