Man is arrested after ‘crime spree’ ending with assault of Filipina woman

SANJOSE>> A man has been arrested after going on a cross-town “crime spree” in which he carjacked a box truck at knifepoint, hit another car, then clubbed an elderly Filipina woman in the head while trying to carjack her, too, police said.

Police have no immediate indication that the assault that capped the series of alleged crimes was racially motivated. Still, it added to a surging ledger of violence against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a tragic peak with the slayings of eight people — six of whom were of Korean and Chinese descent — last week at Atlanta-area spas.

Police first were called about 11:45 a.m. Friday for a report of a carjacking in the 200 block of South Montgomery Street west of downtown.

The driver of a commercial box truck told officers that a man forced him out of his truck by threatening him with a knife. Then when a bystander tried to intervene, police said he instead “narrowly escaped being stabbed.”

After fleeing in the box truck, police said the man got into a hit-and-run crash near of Capitol Expressway and Silver Creek Road, then abandoned the truck about half a mile away on a nearby residential street.

It was in the area of Dove Hill Road where the man reportedly went inside a home through a garage and stole some tools, police said.

Soon after, police said he approached an elderly Filipina woman who was getting into her car, hit her on the head with a pipe or similar blunt tool and demanded her car keys.

The woman instead went back to her home and called for help. Responding officers found the man still walking nearby and and arrested him.

A source familiar with the investigation told this news organization that the woman who was assaulted needed staples to treat her head injury.

Saturday, police identified the suspect as 51-yearold Robert Bonds. He was booked into the Elmwood men’s jail in Milpitas on suspicion of crimes including assault with a deadly weapon, carjacking and robbery and is being held in lieu of $225,000 bail.