A California Highway Patrol crime suppression team spotted a reported stolen vehicle on International Boulevard near 79th Avenue Wednesday evening, setting off a chase through Oakland city streets that ended hours later with three people barricaded inside a vacant home and one loaded firearm tossed aside. By the time it was over early Thursday, all three suspects were booked into Santa Rita Jail on numerous felony charges tied to the stolen car, weapons found at the scene, and their refusal to come out.
According to CHP Golden Gate Division, officers attempted to stop the stolen vehicle after spotting it on International Boulevard, but the driver fled, driving recklessly through Oakland streets. Rather than continue a high-speed ground pursuit, CHP officers ended the chase and instead relied on a CHP aircraft to track the vehicle from above. The three occupants eventually abandoned the car near Rossmoor and Ashton avenues and ran on foot, with two of them slipping into an unoccupied residence and an attached outbuilding while the aircraft continued guiding officers on the ground toward the scene.
The Oakland Police Department established a perimeter around the property while CHP's air unit kept eyes on the suspects below. The Alameda County Sheriff's Office deployed a small unmanned aircraft system to assist with the search, adding another layer of aerial coverage to the standoff. One of the three suspects, 23-year-old Oakland resident Exson Alonzo Chajonvasquez, was arrested at approximately 6:10 PM on Wednesday.
A Tense Overnight Standoff
The remaining suspect inside the property refused repeated commands to surrender, prolonging the standoff for hours into the night. During that time, one of the suspects discarded a loaded firearm, according to CHP. Eventually, 39-year-old Oakland resident Luis Valdez surrendered at approximately 8:20 PM.
The last holdout did not give up quietly. A CHP SWAT team entered the property at approximately 1 AM yesterday and located 39-year-old San Leandro resident Jose Aguilar hiding inside a vehicle on the grounds. Aguilar was taken into custody without further incident, closing out the hours-long operation.
Felony Charges and Legal Exposure
CHP says the three suspects face numerous felony charges, including vehicle theft-related offenses, multiple firearm violations, possession of burglary tools, possession of drug paraphernalia, providing false identification to a peace officer, and resisting or delaying a peace officer. Under California Vehicle Code Section 10851, driving or taking a motor vehicle without the owner's consent can be charged as a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in county jail or as a felony carrying up to three years in prison, according to the Shouse Law Group. Separately, receiving or possessing a stolen vehicle while knowing it was stolen is a wobbler offense under Penal Code Section 496d, punishable by up to a year in county jail as a misdemeanor or up to three years in prison as a felony, per FindLaw.
All three suspects were booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office's primary detention facility with a design capacity of 3,489 inmates. CHP Golden Gate Division Chief Steve Ramos thanked the Oakland Police Department and Alameda County Sheriff's Office for their support during the operation, and said the agency remains committed to working alongside law enforcement partners to hold offenders accountable and keep Oakland and surrounding communities safe.
Part of a Broader State Push in Oakland
Wednesday's standoff played out against the backdrop of an aerial-tracking strategy CHP has leaned on repeatedly in Oakland to avoid dangerous ground chases, using its aircraft and multi-agency drone support to box in fleeing suspects rather than chase them at high speed. That approach traces back to February 2024, when Governor Gavin Newsom temporarily deployed 120 state troopers to Oakland to combat vehicle theft, retail theft, and violent crime, according to the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom later expanded the crime suppression team model statewide across six major metropolitan regions in August 2025, scaling up the same tactical approach first tested in Oakland and Bakersfield, as reported by CalMatters.
The sustained state presence appears to coincide with a steep drop in auto theft locally. Vehicle thefts in Alameda County fell 36.1% from 2024 to 2025 following targeted regional crime suppression operations, according to California Highway Patrol data reported by KTVU FOX 2. Statewide, vehicle thefts fell nearly 25% in 2025 to 133,372 stolen vehicles, down from 176,230 the year before, with law enforcement recovering 84% of stolen vehicles, per the same report.
Even with those declines, standoffs and barricade situations in densely populated East Oakland neighborhoods continue to draw scrutiny over the risks of police pursuits. International Boulevard, where officers first spotted the stolen vehicle, is a major arterial corridor anchored by AC Transit's Bus Rapid Transit route. It remains unclear when the three suspects will be formally arraigned at Alameda County Superior Court, or whether the loaded firearm recovered during the standoff will lead to additional state or federal weapons charges.
