High-Speed Chase Through East Bay was After the Wrong Guys

Two men taken into custody Wednesday night after leading law enforcement officials on a lengthy car chase through the East Bay are not the murder suspects police are seeking, East Palo Alto police said.

Officers of a multi-jurisdictional task force that was formed to capture Jaime Cardenas and Fidel Silva — two men suspected of murder in Grand Junction, CO, and of two other murders in East Palo Alto — spotted a vehicle in Newark registered to one of the murder suspects at about 7:45 p.m., according to police.

The officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver took off.

As the suspects traveled north on Interstate Highway 880, the California Highway Patrol, as well as several local departments, including Fremont police, assisted in the pursuit, Fremont police Sgt. Kevin Moran said.

"We received a request from an outside agency to assist along northbound I-880 as it passed through Fremont," he said. The three Fremont police units transitioned out of the pursuit as it moved north, CHP Officer Sam Morgan said.

A neighborhood in Newark was locked down most of the evening, until about 2 a.m., but police would not confirm whether this was related to the East Palo Alto investigation and the chase.

SWAT teams composed of members of the Newark and Union City police departments responded to the 5600 block of Portsmouth Avenue in Newark at 6:37 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

"We provided an outside assist for (the) East Palo Alto Police Department regarding an investigation that stemmed from their city," Commander Bob Douglas of the Newark Police Department said in an email to Patch.

The pursuit cut through Hayward, San Leandro and Oakland, where the suspects merged onto eastbound I-980 before merging again onto eastbound I-580, Morgan said.

The suspects led authorities at freeway speeds topping out at about 70 mph, and beyond the jurisdiction of Bay Area CHP, Morgan said.

CHP officers from Lathrop were waiting for the suspects and laid out a spike strip that popped one of the suspect vehicle's tires, Moran said.

The suspect vehicle stopped on its own, Moran said, and the men were taken into custody without incident just after 9 p.m.

East Palo Alto police said Wednesday that the two men taken into custody are not Cardenas and Silva and the driver of the vehicle will be arrested on suspicion of evading police.

Bay City News Service and Patch staff contributed to this report.