Palo Alto Police arrested four suspects for organized retail theft last Friday afternoon after shoplifting from a downtown clothing store and were involved in a non-injury hit-and-run collision with another vehicle as they fled the scene. Police booked all four suspects into jail.
On Friday, April 22, 2022, at about 2:07 p.m., the Palo Alto 24-hour dispatch center received a call from staff at lululemon at 432 University Avenue reporting a theft of clothing that just occurred, where the suspects had fled in a BMW X5 sport utility vehicle. One minute later, before officers arrived in the area, the dispatch center received another call reporting a non-injury hit-and-run collision that had just occurred on Homer Avenue at Cowper Street, where the description of the suspect vehicle was similar. Officers responded to both calls.
The investigation revealed that three suspects (two women and one man) had entered the store, grabbed several items of merchandise, and fled without paying to a waiting getaway vehicle with at least one other person inside. Staff at lululemon were able to get a description of the vehicle, as well as its license plate.
As the vehicle was driving southbound on Cowper Street, it ran the stop sign at the intersection with Homer Avenue, striking a westbound 2010 Toyota pick-up truck driven by a man in his twenties. The suspect vehicle did not stop and fled the scene. Both vehicles sustained minor damage only, and there were no injuries from the collision.
Through investigative leads, officers located the suspect vehicle, a silver 2005 BMW X5, traveling eastbound on Highway 92 in Foster City on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. Officers stopped the vehicle in the 27000 block of Industrial Avenue in Hayward, and took the five occupants into custody without incident at about 2:43 p.m. Officers recovered all the stolen property (totaling 54 items, valued at approximately $5,800) inside the vehicle.
Police booked four of the five occupants into the Santa Clara County Main Jail; police released the fifth occupant without charges at the conclusion of the investigation. The four suspects, all of whom police booked for felony organized retail theft, were 26-year-old Modesto resident Dominique Chaz Shawaun Carter, 25-year-old Modesto resident Anita Snell, 24-year-old Modesto resident Maliyah Fa Janay Scott, and 20-year-old Stockton resident Jamil Naylor Harris Jr. Police also booked Carter for misdemeanor hit-and-run and for two outstanding felony warrants (one for grand theft and fraudulent possession of personal identifying information out of the Glendale Police Department, the other for organized retail theft and possession of stolen property out of the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department). Police also booked Snell for an outstanding felony warrant (for grand theft out of the San Jose Police Department). The booking photos of the four suspects appear above.
