Woman, 4-year-old children carjacked at gunpoint in Alameda

ALAMEDA — A woman and two 4-year-old children were carjacked at gunpoint Wednesday afternoon and three suspects — two women and a man — were later arrested after crashing the stolen vehicle in San Francisco, police said.

The carjacking happened about 2:06 p.m. Wednesday in the 2800 block of Mound Street, a residential area in the east end of Alameda.

A 42-year-old woman had parked the BMW SUV she was driving in front of a residence that was not her home, with two 4-year-olds — a boy and girl — police said. All three are Alameda residents and it is believed the woman is related to at least one of the children, authorities said.

As the woman was parked, three suspects — two women and a man, all 18-year-old Oakland residents — approached the vehicle, police said.

One of the women was holding a gun and the suspects demanded the vehicle keys, police said. The woman complied and was allowed to remove the children from the vehicle, police said. No one was physically injured.

The suspects then drove away in the SUV.

With the help of a GPS tracking device, police were able to locate the SUV while it was driving.

An Oakland Police Department helicopter was requested to track the SUV; it followed the vehicle across the Bay Bridge and into San Francisco where police there had been alerted, Alameda police said.