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.

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“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.