Police kill second man in eight days

They say the man was seen with a firearm as officers tried to arrest him

Two Fremont police detectives fatally shot a man in a hotel parking lot Thursday evening after authorities said he was seen with a firearm while police tried to arrest him.

The shooting occurred about 6:25 p.m. outside the Hyatt Place hotel, at 3101 W. Warren Ave.

Fremont police Capt. Sean Washington said Thursday night a recently established “gun violence reduction team” made up of officers from several units was at the hotel watching “a well-known suspect with several outstanding felony warrants, who was believed to be in possession of a firearm.”

Washington said the detectives found the man and tried to take him into custody. When he refused to comply, officers sicced a police dog on him.

“After the deployment of the K-9, the suspect presented a firearm. During the confrontation, two Fremont police detectives fired their service weapons at the suspect,” Washington said while speaking to the media outside the hotel Thursday night.

“Field trauma care was provided to the suspect. The suspect was

pronounced deceased at the scene by paramedics at 6:35 p.m.,” he said.

Less than an hour after the shooting, police officers were taping off large sections of the Hyatt Place parking lot, as well as portions of the nearby Hampton Inn parking lot.

Soraya Bokaie, 57, of Fremont was in her food truck, Mazzeh, prepping guest orders when the shooting occurred.

Thursday was her first night operating the truck outside the hotel, and she saw unmarked cars that were already in the parking lot area start activating lights and sirens and driving toward the area where the shooting appeared to have happened.

“Oh, my gosh. They were all going towards whatever they were doing, and that’s when I heard the gunshots. I heard three or four,” she said in a brief interview Thursday.

“I said, ‘Oh, s***, what the hell is happening?’ ” she said.

“I immediately locked all the doors and windows because I didn’t know what was going on,” she said.

“I was scared. Because if they’re after somebody, maybe somebody would come to the truck. You never know. My immediate reaction was to protect my staff and make sure no one comes into the truck.”

No officers were injured, Washington said. The names of the two detectives were not released Thursday evening, but a police spokeswoman, Geneva Bosques, said the department would release more information about the shooting likely by Monday.

Washington said there has been “a sharp increase in gun violence” in Fremont since the beginning of the year.

Bosques said there have been 13 shooting incidents in the city since Jan. 1, including one fatal shooting at an apartment complex, and three shootings by police, two of them fatal. In 2020, Bosques said there were 19 total shootings in the city, and one shooting by Fremont police officers in Union City’s boundaries.

Bosques said the gun violence reduction team was formed within the past couple of weeks, including officers from the department’s major crimes, street crimes, special investigative and investigations units.

“This particular group of detectives were specifically following this individual because he was suspected to be armed with a firearm,” Washington said. Washington did not offer any further details about the man or the felonies he is suspected of committing.

“I’m very concerned that we have individuals out there in our society that want to take on and kill our police officers,” Washington said in response to being asked if he was concerned about the department’s officers having killed two people in eight days.

Authorities have released few details since multiple officers were at the scene of a separate fatal shooting March 24, after a pursuit of a reportedly stolen vehicle ended on Highway 84 west of Interstate 880.

After a Feb. 9 pursuit of a stolen vehicle, Fremont police officers exchanged gunfire with several suspects following a chase from a shopping center to a dead end near the city’s baylands. Fremont police named the involved officers a few days later.

In that incident, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office later charged five juveniles with a range of offenses, including attempted murder of two police officers, assault with a firearm on two police officers, residential robbery and personal use of a firearm during the commission of felonies.