Less than a week after two plainclothes officers survived a hail of bullets from a passing car in a East San Jose neighborhood, police arrested four men on charges of attempted murder.

The two Special Operations officers were not injured after returning fire in the seemingly unprovoked incident.

The four suspects – Edward Ruiz, 21, Emilio Macias, 22, Robert Cesena, 37, of San Jose, and Gabriel Olmos, 21, Santa Clara – were arrested Thursday and Saturday without incident, police said.

On Jan. 20 at 10:38pm, the two plainclothes officers were stopped at a red light in an unmarked police vehicle at the intersection of McLaughlin Avenue and McLaughlin Court near the Evergreen neighborhood of East San Jose, police said.

The officers said they were confronted by four unknown suspects in a vehicle, who indicated they were armed and appeared to be provoking a confrontation.  After the suspects' and officers' vehicles had continued out of the intersection, the officers pulled over and parked their vehicle along the intersection of Melbourne Boulevard and McLaughlin Avenue.

While radioing for uniformed officers to respond and assist, the suspects’ vehicle made a sudden U-turn and drove towards the officers.

At least one suspect opened fire, striking the unmarked police' vehicle multiple times, according to the police report.

When one officer exited the vehicle and returned fire, the suspects’ vehicle fled the scene at a high rate of speed. The officers’ vehicle was hit by so much gunfire, police said, that it was disabled and could not safely pursue the suspects.

Homicide detectives began a comprehensive investigation and quickly identified a possible suspect vehicle and developed several leads.

On Jan. 23, detectives identified the four adult male suspects responsible for the attack – Edward Ruiz, Gabriel Olmos, Robert Cesena, and Emilio Macias – and obtained arrest warrants for all four suspects as well as search warrants for their associated residences.

The same day, Olmos was arrested in the city of Merced, Cesena was arrested in the city of San José and Macias was arrested in the city of San Francisco. All suspects were transported to the Santa Clara County Main Jail and booked for multiple crimes including attempted murder.

Two days later, on Jan. 25, Ruiz was arrested in Gilroy and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for multiple crimes including attempted murder.

“Last week I said all those responsible will be held to answer for this despicable act of violence, and I stood by my word," Chief of Police Paul Joseph said in a statement. "Thanks to the quick actions and around-the-clock investigative efforts of our homicide detectives, and our Gang Investigations Unit detectives and Special Operations officers who worked tirelessly on this case, we now have the suspects in custody, awaiting their fate from the justice system. We do not take gun violence lightly, especially when it involves an assault on our officers."

“These suspects tried to take a life, and now they’ve lost their freedom,” said San José Mayor Matt Mahan. “I’m grateful to our police department for proving once again that with crime comes consequence in San José.”

"The safety of our officers and our community is a priority," said City Manager Jennifer Maguire. "I am grateful our police department worked swiftly to identify and arrest these suspects so that they no longer endanger our community or officers.”

Anyone with any information about this incident is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Barragan #4106 and/or Detective Harrington #4365 of the San José Police Department’s Homicide Unit via email: 

41**@sa*******.gov











 and/or 

43**@sa*******.gov











, or by calling 408-277-5283.