A five-year-old girl was shot and killed in her car while traveling with her family to a birthday party on the evening of April 8 on Interstate 880 in Fremont, California. Around 6:40 that evening, a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer from the San Jose Area office stopped a few cars on I-880 close to Fremont. Motorists  approached the police and reported that a child in their vehicle had been shot. The young girl was taken to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead. She was later identified as Eliyanah Crisostomo by the county coroner.

According to a GoFundMe page set up by a family friend, Eliyanah was traveling with her family to the Outback restaurant in Milpitas for a birthday dinner when the shooting took place. According to her family, the young child died about 30 seconds later. 

The same evening, Fremont police were also looking into an earlier incident that had happened on Fremont Boulevard.

The police claimed that the shooting was likely gang-related and the intended victim was not harmed. Three suspects were later apprehended in connection with the earlier Fremont Boulevard shooting after a chase, and a gun was discovered, according to the Santa Cruz Police Department. Officers were pursuing the car on Highway 17 when they observed the occupants tossing a gun aside. The suspect driver eventually came to a stop.

UPDATE 4/15: The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged three Fremont gang members with the murder of Eliyanah Crisostomo. Humberto Anaya, Kristo Ayala Valderrama and Emmanuel Alex Sarango were each charged with one count of murder and seven counts of shooting at an occupied car. The three accused gang members are also facing charges of felony assault regarding the incident earlier that evening in Fremont, in which a pedestrian was shot at but no one was hurt.