Palo Alto Police Seek Suspect in Safeway Parking Lot Shooting
PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- Police have released a surveillance image of a suspect and are asking the public's help for more information about a shooting Friday night in a Palo Alto parking lot.
Although no injuries were reported in the shooting, authorities are concerned that a man who was shot at may have been wounded and could need medical care.
The shooting was reported about 9:15 p.m. in the parking lot of the Safeway store at 2811 Middlefield Road, according to a press release from Palo Alto police.
When officers responded to multiple calls about the shooting, they saw a white Lexus SUV with paper license plates leaving the area, in the Midtown neighborhood of Palo Alto. The vehicle appeared to have a shattered window, and when officers tried to stop the SUV, it fled, police said.
Officers pursued the SUV and ultimately discontinued the chase on Highway 101, as the vehicle was driving erratically.
Investigators later determined that the driver of the SUV was shot at as he was getting into the vehicle, after a reported confrontation with the suspect.
The suspect reportedly fired multiple rounds from a semi-automatic handgun at the SUV, before the driver sped away.
Police don't know whether the driver was hit by gunfire. No gunshot victims have turned up at area hospitals, police said.
Video surveillance footage from Safeway shows the suspect is a muscular white man in his 30s or 40s, wearing a black tank top and black baseball cap worn backwards. The suspect appears to have thin tattoos, possibly tribal bands or barbed wire around both biceps, according to police.
The unknown driver who was fired upon is a black man in his 20s or 30s, wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt. Police are concerned for his welfare and want to ensure that he has received medical treatment if he sustained injuries.
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