A Walnut Creek man suspected of threatening two people and telling one of them to “go back to your country” last week in Palo Alto is in custody, police said Monday.
Ambrose Jamari Ochola, 35, was arrested on suspicion of crimes that include misdemeanor battery, assault and a hate crime in connection with the March 3 incidents in downtown Palo Alto.
One victim, a man in his 40s originally from Azerbaijan, was sitting in his car in the 400 block of Emerson Street about 9:30 a.m. when Ochola parked his white 2017 GMC van in front of the victim’s and got out, police said.
The suspect approached the victim’s car and allegedly started banging on the victim’s driver side window with a black object that the victim believed was a pocketknife, but later turned out to be brass knuckles.
Ochola reportedly accused the victim of following him, allegedly yelling “Go back to your country”, “We don’t want to see you here,” and “Leave our country.” The victim told police that he didn’t know Ochola, and hadn’t ever interacted with him.
“The victim started to roll down his window with the intent to ask the suspect what his problem with him was,” Palo Alto police said in a news release.
The suspect then allegedly spat in the victim’s face. After that, the victim drove a block away to get away but the suspect allegedly followed him in his van. That’s when the victim called police.
When police arrived, they found the Ochola in the 500 block of Emerson Street, but he allegedly didn’t obey commands and ran from officers. They apprehended him a short distance away in Lytton Plaza and he was arrested after after a brief struggle, police said.
While officers were investigating that incident, a second victim called police to report a similar encounter, in which the same suspect had recently approached him while he had been sitting in his car near the intersection of Lytton Avenue and Ramona Street.
The second caller, a man in his 30s, said he also didn’t know the suspect. Ochola had asked him to roll down his window, allegedly accused him of following him, and asked him to step out of his car.
When the victim refused, the suspect allegedly attempted to punch the victim through the half-open window of the car but missed. The suspect then swung his hands down and broke the side view mirror of the victim’s car, police said.
There was not a hate crime connected with the second incident, police said.
Officers searched the suspect’s van and found brass knuckles wrapped in black electrical tape inside the driver’s door, but didn’t find a knife. The brass knuckles looked like a folded pocketknife, and police believe they were what the suspect had been holding at the time he allegedly accosted the victim.
Ochola was booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of five misdemeanors (hate crime, battery, resisting arrest, assault, and vandalism) and one felony (possession of illegal weapon).
Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to call the police 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.
Start ’em off with 5150 Peych hold and blood draw for drug testing.
Already on parole or probation ? ? ?
Good job LE! Now Becton do yours ….
If it happened in Palo Alto, then it’s Santa Clara County’s case. I’m sure that they have left
wing DA’s and Judges there also. Interesting problem for the left as no White folks involved
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The woke crowd will claim POC can’t be charged with a hate crime.
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The US is the only country where certain people can break a multitude of laws and still claim to be the victim.
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“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – MLK
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… Sorry MLK, Obama and the Democratic Party killed your dream.
Young republicans are begging the old fogies in their party to stop using the word woke. I guess we know which you are lol.
They charged a black man with a hate crime????
That goes against the liberal narrative.
This will probably be a contrarian view, but why is “hate crime” thrown in the mix? Misdemeanors of battery, resisting arrest, assault, and vandalism and a felony possession of illegal weapon is enough.
As distasteful as it might be, saying things like “Go back to your country”, “We don’t want to see you here,” and “Leave our country”, are allowed under the our constitution, if we still have one.
Speech is fine until physical action/violence is used. He crossed the speech line and therefore not protected under the First Amendment.
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juris dicta
Nope.
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“Nope” what?
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Based on your response, you don’t understand the US Constitution and its limitations under SCOTUS rulings.
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Nope – His actions were an imminent threat, not his words. If he had merely said what he did, there would have been no charge.
Are you positing that one’s free speech protections dissolve upon the commission of a crime such as assault and or battery? What other rights are dissolved? How about 5th Amendment? If one commits a crime is one therefore compelled to speak at the risk of incrimination?
you can use any words you want however, yah, woke is so not a real word in that moronic context.
He’s not the type that’s from WC, who left the backdoor open for him to say he’s from WC?
This guy is mental. If he is not incarcerated he will hurt someone. He is an accident waiting to happen.