Crime & Safety

Cops Arrest Suspect In Woman's Stabbing

Man who'd been dating the victim now in custody.

San Leandro Police have arrested a suspect in the on Best Avenue on Friday, after a friend of the victim, who told authorities of witnessing the attack, fingered a man the victim had been dating.

In custody under suspicion in Friday's stabbing death was Edgar Alfonso Vasquez, 25, who was apprehended inside his residence on the 1600 block of 162nd Avenue early Saturday morning.

Police said Friday the Best Avenue stabbing was unrelated to the rape Tuesday on Bridge Road.

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Authorities provided this account of Vasquez's arrest.

Interviews with the victim's family and friends led police to identify Vasquez as the suspect. Central to this determination was what police said was an eyewitness account of the stabbing by one of the victim's friends, who provided the suspect’s identity and home address.

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Late Friday evening, detectives in the area of 162nd Avenue and Marcella Street found the suspect’s vehicle around the corner from his residence. Detectives staked out the scene and called in the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department’s SWAT team to assist.

Police used loudspeakers to order the suspect to come outside. After several hours with no response, the SWAT team entered the residence and found the suspect hiding in a bedroom. Police say Vasquez resisted arrest and was forcibly taken into custody in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Vasquez was bitten by the Sheriff’s Department’s K-9 dog used during his arrest, police said. He has been taken to a hospital where he is being guarded by San Leandro police.

“A violent and tragic day ended with the arrest of the person we feel is responsible," said San Leandro Police Department spokesman Lieutenant Rick DeCosta.

The Best Avenue incident is the second killing in San Leandro this year.

In January, a 15-year-old girl with an infant was stabbed to death in her home by the baby's 19-year-old father, .

In 2011 there were seven murders in the city, including a outside a tattoo party in October that claimed the life of a San Leandro High student.

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