Police Arrest Suspect in Overnight Armed Robbery of Juvenile Cyclist
Photo: Richard Nunez
Originally published as a City of Palo Alto press release:
“Palo Alto, CA – Officers arrested a man early Monday morning after he accosted a juvenile cyclist with a knife and robbed him of his cell phone. The victim was not physically injured.
On Monday, July 11, 2022, at about 3:03 a.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call from a 16-year-old juvenile who reported he had been robbed on the bike path behind the Town & Country Shopping Center near the 800 block of El Camino Real at about 1:45 a.m.
The investigation revealed that the victim had been riding his bicycle south on the bike path. He heard someone yelling at him to stop, which he did. The suspect rode up to him from behind on a bicycle. The suspect pulled out a black folding pocketknife, brandished it at the victim, and demanded his cell phone and money. The victim complied, and the suspect rode away southbound on the bike path. The victim rode his bike to a friend’s house and notified police.
Around 3:25 a.m., police were able to track the victim’s cell phone to the area of Page Mill Road and El Camino Real. An extensive search of the area did not turn up the phone or the suspect. No updated location information on the phone became available after that.
At about 3:53 a.m., an officer observed a man matching the suspect’s description riding a bicycle southbound in the 4200 block of El Camino Real. The officer detained the man without incident, and subsequent investigation identified him as the robbery suspect. Police located a knife matching the description provided by the victim in the suspect’s pocket. Officers also located suspected methamphetamine and narcotics paraphernalia in the suspect’s possession. The victim’s phone was not recovered.
Police booked the suspect, 34-year-old Richard Nunez of Mountain View, into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for robbery (a felony) and possession of methamphetamine and narcotics paraphernalia (both misdemeanors). His booking photo is available at www.cityofpaloalto.org/PAPDnews.
Detectives are investigating any possible connection between this suspect and two other recent street robberies that have occurred in the same vicinity since last Friday (despite differences in suspect descriptions). For details of those incidents, see the news releases we distributed on July 8 and July 11.
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.”
