By the Daily Post staff
Palo Alto police have arrested an East Bay man suspected of sexually assaulting a teenage girl at gunpoint who was jogging on a path near Arastradero and Deer Creek roads.
Eduardo Antonio Chavarria-Diaz, 29, was arrested at his apartment in Richmond on Sunday (April 8) and an investigation revealed he was also linked to a similar assault in Oakland on March 4, police said in a statement.
On March 28, a high-school age girl was jogging westbound on a path parallel to Arastradero Road when Chavarria-Diaz allegedly pulled her off the path into a greenbelt, put a gun to her head and sexually assaulted her, police said.
Chavarria-Diaz ran away, police said. The victim flagged down a bystander to call 911 at 1:47 p.m. The teenager was taken to Stanford Hospital. Police began a manhunt for the suspect.
On Saturday, Palo Alto police obtained a search warrant in connection with the case. On Sunday, Palo Alto police and East Bay Regional Park District police arrested Chavarria-Diaz without incident at 11 a.m. in his home in the 100 block of South 9th Street in Richmond.
Police booked Chavarria-Diaz into the Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and sexual penetration by force (all felonies). He may also face additional charges in connection with a similar assault that occurred in Oakland on March 4 in the East Bay Regional Park District, police said.
When this happened, police originally said he was Asian. What happened?
It would be interesting to know what led police to this guy? If it wasn’t the description given by the victim, was there something else … surveillance video, a friend who squealed on him? ? ?
About the discrepancy between the original report of the suspect being Asian and the man they arrested … eyewitness accounts are unreliable. Five people can see the same thing, and everyone one of them will give you a different story. I think the police said he was Asian because that’s all they had, and they were grasping at anything. Hopefully they have more evidence now that connects this guy to the crime.
The way things work, if the police made one minor technical error, like a misspelled word or a “T” that wasn’t crossed, an activist judge will throw the case out and let this guy walk.
This goes to show you that even here in peaceful and pleasant Palo Alto, bad things can happen. So you should always be aware of your surroundings and take a friend with you in isolated areas. Kudos to the police for finding this suspect.