Week in Review

Both assaults happened between 7:50 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on the walkway bordering the lagoon near the Hillsdale Boulevard bridge.

The first attack happened in the 200 block of Beach Park Boulevard to two women, both 36, who were taking a walk. The man pushed one woman to the ground and punched the other. The man fled the scene when the women began screaming.

The same man tried to pin a 13-year-old jogger moments later. He grabbed her from behind, pushed her to the ground and attempted to force himself on her. The girl fought off the attacker and escaped.

One of the woman told police the man's breath smelled of alcohol.

Crossing guard foils attempted abduction

An alert crossing guard at Parkside Elementary School in San Mateo helped thwart the abduction of a 9-year-old girl Tuesday.

At 3:30 p.m., the girl was leaving school in the Shoreview neighborhood when a man drove up to her in a forest green Saturn station wagon and engaged her in conversation.

The crossing guard, James Cavazos, lives in the neighborhood and knows the girl. Police called the school employee's act admirable. The girl also displayed caution by backing away from the vehicle which helped alert the crossing guard.

The suspect is described as a white male adult, 45-55 years of age, 6 feet tall with a medium build, gray hair and unshaven. He was wearing a blue striped dress shirt and dark slacks.

The school, on the 1600 block of Eisenhower Street, has easy access to State Route 92 and Highway 101.

Killer will not receive death penalty

Confessed killer Seti Christopher Scanlan - the 26-year-old Mountain View man who raised eyebrows by insisting on the death penalty during his first failed trial - received his own surprise this week: a decision by prosecutors not to re-try him and an immediate transfer to San Quentin State Prison.

Two months after a mistrial spared him the death penalty and a month after a new trial date was set, Scanlan learned during a brief hearing this week prosecutors are abandoning the idea. Instead, his sentence defaults to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The decision nearly ends Scanlan's unique judicial saga, spares taxpayers upwards of $500,000 in court costs and relieves potential jurors from having to weigh the ultimate sentence possible for the death of Alice Martel. After having Scanlan's first penalty phase end in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked 9-3 in favor of death, District Attorney Jim Fox decided a re-trial may not change the outcome.

Weapons cache stolen

Nearly 130 firearms were reported stolen from a Millbrae storage locker this week although the owner said he had not visited the cache since Dec. 6, 2001.

Ken Doolittle reported the theft of his storage locker at Annie's Attic Aug. 19.

The nearly three-year window means the guns could have been stolen as late as last week or years ago and police have entered the stolen guns' serial numbers in a federal database to see if any have been used in crimes already, Co said.

Doolittle told police the retail value of the guns is about $100,000.

Thursday, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives scoured the facility at 210 Adrian Road, perusing video tapes and storage records and leaving the site with a box of evidence.

As first reported by the Daily Journal Aug. 26, Millbrae police notified the ATF of the theft Wednesday, six days after being reported.