Lori A. Carter
Press Democrat
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — The glitter bomb driver from last month has struck again, Santa Rosa police said. This time in a pink pickup.
Aura Palma, a 42-year-old homeless Santa Rosa woman, was arrested Sunday night on multiple charges including assault with a deadly weapon and hit-and-run after another chaotic brush with law enforcement.
The incident began around 8 p.m. when residents of Corlano Avenue reported a suspicious woman knocking on doors. They said she was driving a pink truck.
An officer spotted the distinctive Ford pickup pulling into a 7-Eleven convenience store at Brookwood and Maple Avenues and pulled in behind to stop her, police said.
Palma then backed the truck up and collided with the officer’s patrol car, police said, and drove away.
Officers caught up to her but Palma fled at speeds of 60 mph on Bennett Valley Road and drove through the Highway 12 Park-and-Ride lot. Officers said they tried to cut her off, but she drove through a chain-link fence at the Veterans Memorial Building and continued driving recklessly in the parking lot.
At one-point, police said, Palma attempted to drive head-on into a pursuing officer, who was able to avoid a collision.
Eventually Palma stopped her truck in the parking lot and locked herself in, police said. Officers and crisis negotiators spoke with Palma for more than 40 minutes before she got out of the truck and was taken into custody.
Palma gained some notoriety on May 27, when she is alleged to have stolen a trailer and led police on a chase on Highway 101 with speeds as high as 80 mph, before she stopped, got out and sprayed police and passersby with a cordless blower full of glitter.
Already facing felony charges of reckless evading and driving a vehicle without the consent of the owner in that case, Palma now faces additional evading charges, hit and run, assault, vandalism and resisting arrest charges.
She was being held in Sonoma County Jail on $50,000 bail.