Palo Alto police arrest 2 auto-burglary suspects who fled from officers

PALO ALTO — Police in Palo Alto were able to arrest two auto burglary suspects last week after they fled from officers, leading authorities on a destructive chase.

A call early Thursday evening at around 6:30 p.m. from an alert witness led police to swarm a downtown parking lot in search of the two armed auto burglary suspects. The witness noted the suspicious behavior in city parking lot “H” at 530 Cowper Street, reporting a black Audi A-8 sedan circling the lot while an occupant would get out and peer into vehicles.

Officers surrounded the lot, trapping the suspect vehicle and its two occupants. When an officer went to stop the suspect vehicle, the Audi accelerated and drove at the occupied patrol car, striking it twice as it passed by before immediately colliding with a second occupied patrol car. 

The impact from that collision caused the suspect vehicle to strike three parked and unoccupied vehicles. The suspect vehicle continued driving and proceeded to collide with two more parked and unoccupied vehicles before finally coming to a stop. Officers were then able to take both suspects safely into custody without incident.

A search of the suspect vehicle turned up two loaded firearms — a 9mm Glock handgun that had been illegally modified to be a fully automatic weapon with a fully-loaded 30-round extended magazine and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic handgun equipped with a fully-loaded 17-round magazine. The search also uncovered property from three auto burglaries that had just occurred that afternoon or evening in downtown Palo Alto. 

In each case, windows had been smashed on unoccupied, parked and locked vehicles, with bags containing laptop computers and other personal property stolen from inside. Police recovered all of the stolen property and returned it to the victims.

Police said the license plate on the suspect vehicle belonged to a Toyota registered out of Pacifica, but neither the suspect vehicle nor the license plate on it had been reported stolen to police. The 2013 Audi’s registration had been transferred to an auto dealership out of Oakley but had not yet been registered to any individual.

Police booked the two suspects, 25-year-old South San Francisco resident Tommy Walter Miller and 25-year-old San Francisco resident Nino Joseph Fiapoto, at the Santa Clara County Main Jail for a variety of charges. Both suspects face three felony counts of auto burglary, conspiracy, carrying a loaded firearm with the intent to commit a felony, possession of a large-capacity magazine and carrying a concealed firearm. 

Police additionally booked Miller, who was driving the vehicle, for felony assault with a deadly weapon for sideswiping the occupied police vehicle, possession of a machine gun, and carrying a loaded weapon when not the registered owner of it. Fiapoto was also charged for being a convicted felon in possession a loaded firearm and ammunition. He is on probation out of San Mateo County for a prior conviction of felon in possession of a firearm, and also had an outstanding felony warrant for the same offense out of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.  

Both officers who were inside the patrol vehicles that were struck complained of pain from those collisions but declined medical attention. The driver of the suspect vehicle complained of pain to his head.  Paramedics from the Palo Alto Fire Department evaluated him and released him at the scene. Both patrol vehicles sustained minor damage but were able to be driven from the scene. The suspect vehicle sustained moderate damage and was towed by police as evidence.  Of the five parked and unoccupied vehicles struck by the suspect vehicle, four sustained minor damage and one sustained major damage.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call The Palo Alto Police Department’s 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413.  Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to [email protected] or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.