Palo Alto police say they arrested a man on a hate crime charge Friday morning after he harassed a woman outside City Hall while shouting racial slurs.
On Friday, January 24, at approximately 7:00 a.m., an off-duty Palo Alto Police officer was flagged down by a woman in the 600 block of Ramona Street and advised that a man was following her. On-duty officers responded to the area but did not locate the man.
The investigation revealed that at approximately 6:55 a.m., the victim, a woman in her 40s, was walking in the Civic Center Plaza located at 250 Hamilton Avenue. As she approached the main entrance to City Hall, a man ran up to her, aggressively blocked her path, and yelled racial slurs directed at Asian people.