Suspects Arrested In Fremont Fatal Shooting

A Fremont homicide case that looked stuck just got a big turn. Police said two men — Kaleb Soto, 19, and Ricardo Duran, 42 — have now been arrested in the February 3 shooting that killed a man near Central Avenue and Joseph Street. The twist is that the break didn’t come from some dramatic raid. It came from a separate trespassing call in Hayward, where officers recognized the two men and Fremont investigators moved in. ### What happened in Fremont? The shooting happened at about 4:19 p.m. on February 3, 2026, near Central Avenue and Joseph Street. Fremont officers got multiple 911 calls, arrived within minutes, found one victim on the ground, and tried trauma care. The victim died from his injuries. Fremont police later said this was the city’s second homicide of 2026. ### Who was arrested? Fremont police identified the suspects as Soto, 19, and Duran, 42. (fremontpolice.gov) Police said both men were taken into custody after Hayward officers encountered them on April 4 during a trespassing call and recognized them as people connected to the Fremont homicide investigation. Fremont detectives then took custody of them, and both were booked on homicide warrants under California Penal Code 187. (fremontpolice.gov) ### Why did the arrests come out now? That’s one of the odd parts here. The arrests happened on April 4, but Fremont police publicly announced the update on May 7. Police did not explain the delay in the release, but that kind of gap usually means investigators were still working the case, sorting out filings, or protecting parts of the investigation they did not want public yet. That last part is an inference — the release itself only gives the arrest timeline. (fremontpolice.gov) ### Do we know who was killed? Police did not name the victim in the arrest release. But court-record reporting tied the case to the death of Fernando Campos-Diaz. That reporting also placed the shooting near a 7-Eleven in the same Central Avenue and Joseph Street area police described in their original release. ### What do court records add? This is where the case gets more specific — and more serious. (fremontpolice.gov) Court-record reporting said prosecutors tied Soto and Duran to the Decoto gang, a Norteño subset based in Union City, and said the shooting grew out of a clash with members of a rival set. The account says a fight broke out, the Decoto side started losing, and then a gun was brought in. Soto is accused of chasing Campos-Diaz as he ran and shooting him. Those details come from court reporting, not the Fremont police release. (patch.com) ### Why does the Hayward stop matter? Because it shows how a homicide case can break open through something much smaller. Hayward officers were not responding to the Fremont killing. They were handling a trespassing call. But recognizing the two men as persons of interest gave Fremont detectives the opening they needed. Basically, a routine local call turned into the key break in a murder case. (patch.com) ### What’s still missing? A lot, actually. Police are still asking for witnesses and tips. The public release does not spell out motive, charging enhancements, whether anyone else was involved, or what evidence specifically tied the suspects to the killing. Some of that has surfaced in court reporting, but the official police update is still pretty bare-bones. ### Bottom line The headline is simple — two men are now in custody in Fremont’s February 3 homicide. (fremontpolice.gov) But the real shape of the story is narrower and more revealing: a neighborhood shooting, a two-month investigative gap, and a break that came from an unrelated trespassing stop in another city.