San Rafael, CA – On 08/17/19, at 9:20 AM, Willie Jones, a 39-year-old homeless resident of San Rafael, was arrested for several charges, including stalking and failure to comply as a sex registrant, after he accosted numerous women and fled from police.

At 6:45 AM, Officers were dispatched to a report of a subject in an apartment complex on Laurel Place. The caller told police the subject was acting suspicious, appeared to be casing the apartment complex, and was concerned that a burglary was going to occur. Officers were dispatched to the area.

At 6:55 AM, While officers were checking the area for the suspicious person, a victim called the police and reported that a subject, matching the description from the previous call, had approached her while she was walking her dog at Boyd Park. When the victim tried to leave the park, the suspect began to follow her. The victim was obviously frightened and began to run from the suspect. The suspect pursued the victim for several blocks until she was able to outrun him.

Officers arrived within minutes and located the suspect. When officers tried to detain the man, he ran from them. Officers chased the suspect and additional officers responded to the scene. The suspect evaded officers and was not immediately located.

While searching for the suspect, officers were flagged down by another female victim who reported the same suspect had been following her as well. Officers continued their search for the suspect.

Twenty minutes later, SRPD Dispatchers received another call from another victim. The victim stated the same suspect had chased her around the block before she was able to run into her place of work. The victim locked the door and barricaded herself inside while the suspect pounded on the door.

Officers responded to the business and located the suspect, Willie Jones, just outside the victim’s place of work. Jones again ran from the officers and refused to comply with their directions to stop. Officers were able to set up a perimeter around Jones and contained him in a parking lot on Fourth Street just under the US-101 freeway. Jones was able to reach a ladder and climbed onto the roof of a neighboring business.

Officers directed Jones to climb down from the roof and he refused. Crisis negotiators from the Marin County Sheriff’s Department were called to the scene to assist. After almost two hours of negotiating with Jones, he was convinced to climb down from the roof of the business and surrender. Jones was taken into custody without further incident.

During the investigation, it was learned that Jones had been released from jail on 8/9/19, was on probation, and listed as a “high risk” registered sex offender who was out of compliance with his registration requirements.

Jones was booked into the Marin County Jail for stalking, resisting/fleeing from a peace officer, false identification to a peace officer, trespassing, violation of probation, and being out of compliance with sex offender registration terms.