East Palo Alto Police arrested three people and responded to 135 incidents during Independence Day, city officials said yesterday (July 8)
The 27 officers working on the holiday seized four guns, responded to a carjacking, a robbery and arrested a man on allegations of sexual assault.
From 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., officers responded to the 135 incidents. While the department didn’t give an exact count of the fireworks seized, boxes of them could be seen piled high across an office table in an image released by the city.
During the July 4 night shift, officers responded to a reported carjacking and a reported robbery, as well as arresting Vicente Solono Moreno, 45, of East Palo Alto, on suspicion of sexual assault.
That arrest led to police seizing two pistols and high-capacity magazines, as well as heroin and amphetamines totaling roughly $250,000 in value, the city said.
“Despite the successes of our officers last Thursday, we know more can be done,” Lopez said.
Lopez said the city council will review a proposal to install license plate cameras in town.
East Palo Alto is one of the few cities on the Mid-Peninsula that hasn’t looked at the technology. City Councils in both Mountain View and Menlo Park gave the OK for police chiefs in each city to work on license plate camera proposals in May.
East Palo Alto officials did not release the reasons that two other people were arrested on Independence Day. Their names were also not released.
Just before Independence Day, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of one man, Froylan Vazquez, 47, and the ticketing of Antonio Torres-Vazquez, 23, for possessing illegal fireworks and a stolen gun. Those arrests were made on June 19.
East Palo Alto Police handed out tickets on June 11 to an adult and teenager after a group of teens were shooting Roman Candles at one another last month, according to Police Chief Jeff Liu. In that incident, police seized 159 lbs of fireworks, preventing 18,380 additional discharges.
— From wire and staff reports.
