By Khalida Sarwari
A 67-year-old man was arrested in Palo Alto on Sunday night following an altercation with his live-in girlfriend that led police to surround a home near El Camino Real for nearly eight hours.
A woman called police at about 10:45 a.m. Sunday and reported that her boyfriend, whom police identified as Clyde Farmer, had threatened her with a steak knife during an argument, police Officer Marianna Villaescusa said.
The woman ran and barricaded herself in a bedroom, holding the door with the weight of her body, Villaescusa said.
Officers arrived at the home in the 500 block of Georgia Avenue under the assumption that Farmer was still in the house and rescued the woman through a bedroom window.
They then surrounded the house, and a hostage negotiation team tried to make contact with Farmer, whom they believed was inside, Villaescusa said.
Hours later, a Santa Clara County sheriff’s bomb squad was called to use their robots to search for Farmer. A SWAT team then entered the house at about 6:30 p.m. and determined he was not there.
It turned out that he had left before police arrived, Villaescusa said.
Later that evening, Farmer called police and asked them to meet him at Gunn High School, where he turned himself in.
Farmer was booked into Santa Clara County’s main jail on a charge of attempted assault with a deadly weapon.
Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Nick Muyo said the case is under review. If charges are filed, Farmer will likely be arraigned on Aug. 30, Muyo said.
The victim, a woman in her 30s, complained of pain, but she did not have any visible injuries, Villaescusa said. The two had been dating for about two years and had been living together on and off during that time, she said.
“There were past domestic violence issues in the house,” Villaescusa said.
Officers with the Menlo Park, Los Altos and Mountain View police departments assisted, along with a Sunnyvale K-9 team.