A easy but highly effective hand sign popularized on TikTok helped a girl escape a home violence incident at a 7-Eleven in Alhambra, police stated.
A bystander known as 911 after witnessing a girl within the retailer give the “sign for assist” behind her again, a gesture that entails tucking your thumb into your palm and trapping it with 4 fingers on prime. Alhambra cops rapidly responded to the decision and located the girl and the suspect contained in the 7-Eleven at 2150 S. Fremont Ave. on Aug. 19.
A picture from a police physique digicam reveals a person suspected in a home violence incident and the girl who signaled for assist in a 7-Eleven.
(Alhambra Police Division)
The suspect, recognized as John Palombi of Glendora, tried to flee the scene after officers requested to talk to him outdoors the shop. Just lately launched physique digicam video reveals Palombi, 38, ditching two plastic luggage and a Huge Chew scorching canine field earlier than working away from the officers, who catch him inside a matter of seconds and cargo him right into a police automotive.
It was later decided {that a} home violence incident had occurred and that Palombi had an lively warrant for his arrest in addition to a stun gun in his possession, police stated. He was booked on the Alhambra metropolis jail, and is at the moment being held with out bail on the Males’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, in line with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Division’s inmate data heart.
He’s due in courtroom on Sept. 11, however data on the costs filed towards him weren’t instantly out there.
He was arrested thrice final yr on suspicion of violating the phrases of his parole.
The sign for assist was created in April 2020 by the Canadian Ladies’s Basis to assist fight the spike in home violence in the course of the isolation of the pandemic.
The group designed the sign to be a widely known however discreet manner for a survivor to succeed in out for assist over video or in individual. The sign went viral on social media and has been credited with serving to rescue girls from gender-based violence in nations together with Spain, Syria, Italy and the US.
A lacking 16-year-old woman was rescued in 2021 after utilizing the hand sign from inside a automotive in Kentucky. A person in Tennessee was charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated home assault in 2022 after his ex-girlfriend used the hand sign to tip off fuel station employees that she wanted assist.
