Murder Suspects Remain Free After High-Speed Chase

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, Colo., and of -- spotted a vehicle in Newark registered to one of the murder suspects at around 7:45 p.m., according to police.

The officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver failed
to yield.

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.

More CHP units joined the pursuit as it 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, passing through the Livermore area and beyond the jurisdiction of Bay Area CHP, Morgan said.

CHP in 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 for evading police.

--Bay City News