Fugitive tricks Good Samaritan during Palo Alto manhunt

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Palo Alto police caught a fugitive Monday evening after the man tricked a Good Samaritan into helping him hide out.

Police sent out warnings about the suspect on Twitter and on the county emergency alert system all morning long during the four and a half hour manhunt. Police were finally able to arrest the suspect after a patrol officer spotted him emerging from a home within the search area. According to officers, the suspect had chatted for hours inside a residence after spontaneously befriending the homeowner.

Police received a report of a possible fraudulent transaction at around 5 p.m. at the Bank of America around 530 Lytton Avenue in Palo Alto. Bank employees gave police a description of the suspect, who walked out of the business as officers arrived on the scene. The suspect then fled on foot and was able to elude police after hopping a fence on the 300 block of Cowper Street.

Police then set up a perimeter and began searching for the suspect.

During the search, the suspect, 35-year-old Dominique Arnett Tabb of San Francisco, befriended a homeowner and entered his home after telling the man he had been jumped and that people were looking for him. The homeowner, a man in his 60s, invited Tabb in, had a lengthy conversation with him and even fed him.

Meanwhile, the Palo Alto Police Department used the AlertSCC telephone notification system to deliver recorded messages about the situation to 286 homes and businesses in the neighborhood. The homeowner heard the alert and didn't think the description matched that the man in his home.

Tabb then convinced the homeowner to give him a ride to the train station. Officers stationed in the 500 block of Everett Court saw the suspect walk out of that home with the homeowner, police said. The officer approached them, at which point the suspect fled, but officers were able to surround the suspect and police arrested the man without further incident.

The investigation into the fraud at the bank revealed that Tabb also had warrant for his arrest out of Oklahoma for a sex crime against a minor. Police booked Tabb into the Santa Clara County Main Jail and charged him with felony check fraud and misdemeanor resisting arrest.