Arrests in Fatal Fremont Shooting

A Fremont homicide case that had been hanging open since early February just moved forward. Police say two men suspected in the fatal shooting near Central Avenue and Joseph Street are now in custody. The twist is that the arrest did not come from some dramatic raid in Fremont. It started with a trespassing call in Hayward, where officers recognized the men as people tied to the case. ### What happened in February? The shooting happened on February 3, 2026, at about 4:19 p.m. near Central Avenue and Joseph Street. Fremont police got multiple 911 calls, arrived within minutes, and found one victim on the ground. Officers gave trauma care at the scene, but the victim later died. Police said at the time that this was Fremont’s second homicide of 2026. (sfgate.com) ### Who was arrested? The men taken into custody are Kaleb Soto, 19, and Ricardo Duran, 42. Fremont police said both were booked on suspicion of homicide after Hayward officers detained them on April 4. One detail worth noting — an earlier court-record report identified Soto as 18 in April, while the later arrest coverage listed him as 19, which likely reflects a birthday between those reports. (fremontpolice.gov) ### Why were Hayward police involved? Turns out the arrest happened almost by accident. Two months after the shooting, Hayward police were handling a suspected trespassing incident. During that contact, officers recognized two of the people they were dealing with as persons of interest in the Fremont homicide investigation. That recognition is what led to Soto and Duran being taken into custody. (sfgate.com) ### Do we know who the victim was? Fremont police did not identify the victim in the initial release or in the later arrest update picked up by Bay City News. But court-record reporting cited by Patch identified the man who died as Fernando Campos-Diaz. That same report said he was found wounded near a 7-Eleven in the area before dying from his injuries. (sfgate.com) ### What do investigators think led to the shooting? This is where the picture gets more specific, but also more provisional. Patch, citing court records described by the East Bay Times, said Duran and Soto were accused of having ties to the Decoto gang, a Norteño subset in Union City, and of confronting Campos-Diaz and two others tied to a rival group. The report says a fight broke out, the Decoto side started losing, and then a gun was brought in. (sfgate.com) Police have not laid out that narrative in the public press release, so that part comes from court-record reporting rather than the basic arrest announcement. ### Why does the timing matter? Because this was not a same-day arrest. The killing happened on February 3. The suspects were detained on April 4. Fremont police publicly announced the arrests on May 7. That gap tells you the case was moving through the slower part of homicide work — identifying suspects, coordinating across cities, and then deciding what could be said publicly. (patch.com) ### Is the case finished now? Not really. An arrest closes one big question — who police think was involved — but not the whole case. Fremont police are still asking anyone who witnessed the shooting or has information to contact investigators or send an anonymous tip. That usually means detectives still want to firm up the sequence, the roles, and the evidence before everything moves deeper into court. (sfgate.com) ### Bottom line? The big news is simple: a fatal Fremont shooting from February now has two suspects in custody. But the bigger takeaway is how it happened — not through a public crackdown, but because another city’s officers spotted the right names during a routine call. (sfgate.com)