A Redwood City man was arrested in Palo Alto last weekend for allegedly beating two men with a cane and yelling racial epithets at one of them, police said Wednesday.
Shane Patrick Collins, 26, was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, felony robbery, misdemeanor resisting arrest and hate crime enhancements, Palo Alto police Lt. Zach Perron said.
At 11:58 p.m. Saturday, a police officer driving down the 400 block of Emerson Street heard a commotion from the back corner of a city parking lot, according to Perron. When the officer went to investigate, he noticed a man in his 60s lying on the ground in a fetal position with a suspect, who had blood on his hands and head, standing over the man and kicking him in the upper chest and head, police said. After the officer ordered the suspect to stop, the suspect fled on foot to an alleyway but the officer caught him and placed him under arrest, Perron reported.
An investigation revealed that the man in his 60s had been talking to a second man, who is in his 50s, when they were approached by the suspect, who was unknown to them, according to police. The suspect, who is white, then started repeatedly yelling racial slurs at the second man, who is black, Perron said.
“It was very evident to us that not only was this an 'assault with a deadly weapon,' but that that there should be a ‘hate crime' enhancement to it,” Perron said.
The victims told the suspect to go away and leave them alone, but the suspect then proceeded to assault the second man, who tried to defend himself by swinging his cane at him, police said. The second man then fell to ground and the suspect grabbed the cane, got on top of him and hit him at least once on the head with it, according to police.
The first victim, who is white, attempted to flee down the alleyway but the suspect chased him and struck him in the back of the head with the cane. When the man tried to defend himself, the suspect struck him again, breaking the cane over the man's forehead, police said. After the man fell down, the suspect began punching and kicking him until the officer arrived, according to Perron.
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"The suspect was standing over him, holding on to a stairwell to keep his balance while he was kicking the victim in his head and upper chest,” Perron said.
One man suffered two cuts to his head and the other suffered one cut to his head, while the suspect also had a cut to his forehead, police said. The two victims were treated by medical personnel at the scene and released while the suspect was transported to a hospital to be medically cleared before being placed into jail, Perron said.
Rev. Jethro Moore, the president of the Silicon Valley chapter of NAACP said, if the allegations are true, Collins should be prosecuted for a hate crime. "If they hear about it and there is not strong, stern action, others will repeat it,” Moore said. “That's why it's important for us to handle it immediately after it happens."
The Palo Alto Police Department is wrapping up its investigation and it will be up to the district attorney's office to decide on the final charges.
