A Palo Alto man allegedly beat a woman with a metal object at a downtown apartment complex Tuesday morning, leaving her bleeding on the ground with serious injuries, police said.

The man, a 49-year old Palo Alto resident, was arrested in San Jose later that afternoon, according to a news release from the Palo Alto Police Department.

Police received a call just before 10 a.m. about a woman on the ground at Alma Place, an apartment complex at 753 Alma St., according to the news release. The woman, who is in her 50s, was covered in blood and calling for help, police said. When police officers and Fire Department paramedics arrived, she had significant injuries to her head and neck.

Police said she was taken to a hospital where she is now in stable condition and is expected to survive.

The man and the woman had known each other for about a year and the man had allowed her to stay in his apartment the night before the attack. In the morning, he accused her of trying to steal her belongings, according to the police, and the two began to argue before he allegedly struck her in the head and neck with an unknown metal object. Police said the object may have been a hammer, which officers later recovered at the scene.

After the attack, the man reportedly left the apartment, leaving the woman behind with another woman.

Police said the investigation led them to San Jose, where they found the man's Volkswagen Jetta parked in the 1500 block of Almaden Expressway at about 4 p.m. The man was arrested on suspicion of one count of assault with a deadly weapon and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the department's 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent by text message or voicemail to 650-383-8984.

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