Alleged Palo Alto Purse Snatcher Arrested By SWAT Team

PALO ALTO, CA — A man accused of robbing a woman while she was parked in her driveway earlier this month was arrested by a SWAT team Thursday morning, according to police.

Police said a woman in her 60s called 911 to report the robbery shortly after 8 p.m. on Feb. 7. The woman told police she was sitting in her car and using her phone when a man approached and yelled at her to give him her purse and phone. The woman said the man kept one hand under his sweatshirt, which she assumed was holding a gun.

The man fled the scene, and officers said they recovered the woman's phone discarded nearby. Investigators processed the phone for fingerprints before returning it to the victim.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office found a match for the fingerprint, leading detectives to a suspect in the case. Police identified the suspect Thursday as Antonio Jaman Harrison, 36, of East Palo Alto.

On Thursday morning, a SWAT team served search and arrest warrants at Harrison's home on Bay Road in East Palo Alto, with assistance from the East Palo Alto Police Department, the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, and the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety.

Police said they arrested Harrison without incident and did not find weapons or items from the robbery inside the home. He was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on charges related to the robbery warrant and a felony probation violation, police said.