Teen Arrested for September Hwy. 101 Shooting

An 18-year-old man was arrested in Redwood City this afternoon
after a two-month search for a suspect in a U.S. Highway 101 shooting,
Belmont police said.

East Palo Alto resident Eric Valencia Vargas was arrested at 1 p.m. in the 700 block of Veterans Boulevard in Redwood City on suspicion of multiple charges including attempted homicide, police said.

Vargas is suspected of shooting at three people in a Dodge Charger as they drove south on Highway 101 near the Ralston Avenue off-ramp in Belmont on Sept. 30 around 3:30 p.m., police said.

The car, believed to be targeted either because of a road rage incident or a previous dispute, veered off the road after it was struck by bullets multiple times, police said.

It crashed through a construction fence about a mile further south near an off-ramp to Holly Street in San Carlos.

Two of the car's three occupants, a 19-year-old East Palo Alto man and a 24-year-old Menlo Park man, were hospitalized with injuries from the shooting. A 23-year-old Santa Cruz woman suffered minor injuries from the crash, police said.

Two of them were released that night from hospitals, while one man who suffered shooting injuries was released in early October, police said.

No other vehicles were struck by bullets, and no one else was injured, police said.

Following the shooting, a two-month investigation to find the shooter who got away was led by Belmont police who worked with several Bay Area law enforcement agencies, including the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and the East Palo Alto and San Francisco police departments.

--Bay City News