Palo Alto: Police investigating reported sexual assault at transit center
PALO ALTO — Police are investigating a report of a sexual assault at knifepoint near the downtown transit center earlier this month.
A woman went to the Newark Police Department on Wednesday to report an attack from Nov. 4 in Palo Alto, according to police. Palo Alto police then interviewed the woman and launched an investigation.
She reported that around 7:30 p.m. that evening, she was waiting for a bus at the transit center on University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto when a man asked her to translate a conversation with another man in the vicinity.
After following the man, she told police that there was no second person and that the man “gestured toward a knife clipped to his pants pocket and threatened to harm” her if she did not obey him.
“The suspect sexually assaulted the victim before fleeing on foot in an unknown direction,” reads a Palo Alto police news release. “The victim went home and did not initially report the incident to police due to threats made by the suspect.”
Police released a vague description of the assailant, a slender man in his 30s wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black cargo pants and a surgical mask.
The news release stated that no similar incidents had recently been reported in the city.
Anyone with information for investigators can contact Palo Alto police at 650-329-2413 or submit a anonymous tip at 650-383-8984 or by emailing paloalto@tipnow.org.