$20K Reward Offered In Connection With South Bay Shooting

PALO ALTO, CA — A Bay Area nonprofit is offering a cash reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction in connection with a Palo Alto shooting over the weekend, police said.

The suspect opened fire on a man in his 30s who interrupted them during a car burglary late Saturday night, police said. The shots missed.

Mothers Against Murder is offering the $20,000 reward, according to police.

Officers responded to a report of a shot fired during a dispute over an interrupted auto burglary just before midnight in the 3600 block of South Court, police said.

The victim told authorities he noticed lights shining in the street outside his home and saw several people walking suspiciously down the street shining flashlights into parked cars and trying to open car doors, police said.

When he went outside to confrot them he found one of the suspects standing by the open driver’s door of his car in his driveway, police said.

“The victim chased the suspects on foot as they ran to a waiting getaway vehicle,” police said in a statement.

“As the suspects were getting into the vehicle, the victim heard what he believed to be a gunshot and believed he saw the impact of the round on the pavement in front of him.”

The suspect vehicle was last seen traveling northbound on South Court and then eastbound on East Meadow Drive, police said.

Officers located an expended casing from a .40 caliber handgun at the scene and will process it for evidence, police said.

The suspects in this case are believed to be associated with similar incidents in in the 700 block of Talisman Court earlier in the evening, police said.

“We hope that this reward will spur someone with information about this dangerous suspect and his accomplices to come forward and speak with our detectives,” Palo Alto Police Department Chief Robert A. Jonsen said in a statement.

“Violence of any kind will not be tolerated in our community, and we are deeply appreciative of the support of Mothers Against Murder to help reduce gun violence.”

Mothers Against Murder, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization, was founded in 2003 by longtime Palo Alto resident Roger Smith, who is still the corporation’s chairman.

For more information about Mothers Against Murder, visit their website or call (650) 285-9221.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Palo Alto Police Department’s 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.