Suspect stays defiant with bird-flipping mugshot
PALO ALTO » A woman wanted on an assault warrant was arrested after leading Palo Alto police on a car and foot chase, but not before punching an officer and striking a police dog early Wednesday, according to police.
Her defiance extended into her jail booking, where her mugshot shows her making an obscene gesture with her middle finger.
Police said a patrol officer was traveling on El Camino Real near Stanford Avenue around 1:20 a.m. when he ran a routine license-plate check on a passing blue 2013 Hyundai Sonata, and learned it was associated with a woman wanted on a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon in Fremont.
The officer stopped the Hyundai, and after initially pulling over, the driver sped away westbound on Stanford Avenue, leading police on a pursuit south to Junipero Serra Boulevard, then west on Page Mill Road toward the foothills, police said.
The driver reached a dead end on Alexis Drive and ditched her car and confronted officers who had closed in, police said. She reportedly “began punching an officer” and ran off after another officer tried to fire a Taser at her.
She was subdued by a Palo Alto police dog, but not before she struck the animal, police said.
Police say the suspect, identified as 34-year-old Tyechia Denise Payton from the Central Valley town of Thornton, suffered minor injuries during the encounter, was treated on site by paramedics, and then taken to the hospital for routine evaluation. The officer and police dog she allegedly hit showed no reported injuries.
Payton was arrested on suspicion of felony evading, assault counts involving the officer and the police dog, and misdemeanor resisting arrest. In addition to her felony warrant in Fremont, she had a misdemeanor warrant for traffic-related offenses. She was booked into the Elmwood women’s jail in Milpitas and is being held on $97,052 bail, according to county jail records.