Woman Carjacked at Gunpoint in Palo Alto

A woman was carjacked at gunpoint in Palo Alto Saturday night. She was not injured. Police have arrested two teenagers for the crime.

The woman called 9-1-1 at 9:40 Saturday night. She told the dispatcher that she had just been carjacked at gunpoint in the 100 block of California Avenue. She gave the dispatcher a description of the gunman, a description of her car, and told police that the gunman stopped to pick-up another person before turning northbound on Birch Street.

An officer spotted the car as it turned onto El Camino from College Avenue. At that point, there were three people in the car. The car was subsequently stopped in the 400 block of Oxford Avenue. All three people in the car were taken into custody. A “realistic-looking BB gun” was recovered from the car. The vehicle was not damaged and was returned to the victim.

“The investigation revealed that the driver of the vehicle, 18-year-old Amador Valentin Rivera of East Palo Alto, had approached the victim as she sat in her parked vehicle near the intersection of California Avenue and Park Boulevard,” Officer Marco Estrada said in a prepared statement. “He knocked on her window, pointed the gun at her, and demanded that she give him her car. The victim, a woman in her thirties, complied and stepped out of the car. The suspect then drove away while the victim called 9-1-1 from her cell phone. The victim was not injured.”

Estrada continued, “Detectives were able to develop information indicating that one of the other two occupants of the victim’s vehicle, a 16-year-old juvenile male from Menlo Park, had assisted Rivera in the commission of the carjacking. Police believe the juvenile was present during the carjacking, but went unseen by the victim.”

Police released the third person after they determined that he had no role in the crime.

Rivera and the juvenile are both charged with felony carjacking.

If you have information about this crime contact the 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.

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