FREMONT, CALIFORNIA — A man suspected of being a former UPS employee stole a UPS delivery truck in Fremont early Thursday morning, led police on a brief pursuit, and then barricaded himself inside the disabled truck for several hours before SWAT officers breached the rear door and he surrendered.
Fremont Police responded shortly after 1:30 a.m. to reports of a delivery truck driving erratically in the area of Cushing Parkway. Officers confirmed the truck had been stolen and initiated a pursuit. The truck became disabled near Grimmer Boulevard and Auto Mall Parkway. The suspect, later identified as Rafael Taniguchi Garcia, 27, of Union City, then barricaded himself inside the vehicle. Police received unconfirmed reports that he may have been armed.
The Fremont Police SWAT team was called to the scene. Negotiators communicated with Garcia for several hours. At approximately 5:40-5:45 a.m., SWAT officers breached the rear door of the truck. Garcia emerged from the back of the truck and surrendered, crawling on the ground. No force was used during the arrest and no weapons were fired.
Garcia was cleared at a local hospital before being booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on felony charges of taking a vehicle without consent, reckless evading, and resisting. The contents of the truck had not yet been searched at the time of the arrest. No motive has been determined. It was not immediately clear where the truck was stolen from.
Grimmer Boulevard was closed during the standoff but has since reopened. Fremont Police acknowledged assistance from the Milpitas, Newark, and Union City police departments. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Fremont Police Department.
All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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