UPDATED: Milpitas SWAT Assists in Newark Raid

Updated: August 26 at 5:12 a.m.

Multiple law enforcement agencies, mostly from East Bay cities, descended upon Newark early Thursday morning and raided five homes.

The raid involved a string of armed robberies, said Fremont police Detective Bill Veteran. Four people were arrested, and police are still looking for one more suspect.

The search warrants issued focused on the armed robberies did not involve drugs, said Veteran.

The Milpitas Police Department declined to comment about its involvement at this time, deferring to the Fremont Police Department.

The raid was conducted as part of a multiple-jurisdiction investigation, said Fremont police Sgt. Fred Bobbitt. Multiple homes were raided near Cotton and Thomas avenues off Cherry Street this morning.

Officers from Newark, Hayward, Milpitas, San Leandro, Union City and Fremont were spotted in the neighborhood between Central and Thornton avenues as early as 7 a.m.

Fremont police were searching a home on the 6300 block of Thomas Ave. in Newark until 9:55 a.m.

Neighbors said they woke up to loud booms just after 7 a.m., which police said were not gunshots.

“It sounded like a bomb. It shook the whole neighborhood,” said resident James Wiley.

Neighbors told Patch that there was high traffic in and out of the homes that were searched, even late at night.

The investigation is ongoing and is headed by Fremont police, Bobbitt said.