Knife-Wielding Man Assaulted Stranger At Peninsula Mall: Police

PALO ALTO, CA — A 57-year-old man was arrested after allegedly approaching a stranger at a Palo Alto shopping center and physically assaulting him while wielding a knife, Palo Alto police said Monday.

Police responded around 1:47 p.m. Friday to a report of a man brandishing a knife in the Town and Country Shopping Center at 855 El Camino Real in Palo Alto.

According to police, the victim, a man in his fifties, was approached by a man he didn't know who pushed him in the back. When the victim turned around, the suspect took out a pocket knife with the blade extended and swung it at the victim, police said.

The victim yelled for help after the suspect told the man he would physically harm him, at which point the suspect stopped, according to police. Officers arrived and arrested the suspect, identified as Michael Keyes, 57, of San Francisco.

Keyes was booked into the San Jose Main Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and making criminal threats.