A silver BMW sedan followed a pickup truck early Sunday in San Pablo, and police say a passenger in the BMW pointed a gun at the truck's occupants before the BMW rammed it from behind, sending the pickup careening into a senior housing complex next to City Hall. Both people inside the pickup were pulled from the overturned vehicle and hospitalized in stable condition.
According to the Richmond Standard, the pickup's occupant called 911 on Nov. 8 to report that a silver BMW sedan was following the truck from San Pablo. Police say the BMW's front passenger then pointed a firearm at the truck's occupants on San Pablo Avenue before the BMW struck the pickup's rear, and the pickup crashed into the Hana Gardens apartments, a residential building at 10860 San Pablo Ave. that sits beside El Cerrito City Hall. Separately, KRON4 reports that El Cerrito police received the initial call around 2:08 a.m. Sunday from someone in the pickup who said they were being chased by the BMW in San Pablo.
Overturned Truck, Two Occupants Rescued
When El Cerrito police officers arrived, they found the pickup overturned with both occupants trapped inside, per the Richmond Standard's reporting. Emergency personnel extricated both occupants and transported them to a hospital, where authorities reported both were in stable condition — matching KRON4's account that police rescued two people from the overturned truck and took them to a hospital.
Investigators say they leaned on regional camera networks to track down the fleeing BMW. El Cerrito officers used regional automated license plate reader camera data to help identify the vehicle, according to the Richmond Standard's reporting. KRON4 reports that police ultimately found the BMW abandoned in Richmond with the help of the camera data and impounded it as evidence. The investigation remains ongoing, and no further details on the BMW's occupants have been released.
A Camera Network Already Under Scrutiny
The plate-reader technology that helped locate the BMW has drawn its own attention in El Cerrito this year. A February notice from the El Cerrito Police Department disclosed that the city contracts with Flock Safety for forty license-plate-reading cameras, and that the department allows its data to be shared with other California state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies. That same review identified two instances since August 2023 in which federal agencies queried the local network — the U.S. Postal Inspection Service between September and November 2023, and Loma Linda Veterans Affairs police on two occasions in May 2025, according to Hoodline's prior reporting on the audit.
Police are asking anyone with information about the crash or the BMW to contact the El Cerrito Police Department at 510-215-4400 or by email at [email protected], per the Richmond Standard. For non-emergency matters, police also provided a dispatch line at 510-237-3233.
