Teen arrested after pulling gun amid Telegraph street fight: BPD

Berkeley police have made an arrest in the case of a teenager they say pulled a gun during a street fight on Telegraph Avenue earlier this month.

The fight itself dates back to Friday, Oct. 10, when police were called to Cali's Sports Bar, the former Blake's location at Telegraph and Durant avenues, just before 1:40 a.m.

That time of night is often busy in the Southside neighborhood near UC Berkeley as the bars prepare to close and patrons, including many Cal students, pour out into the street.

After reviewing cellphone and neighborhood surveillance footage and speaking to witnesses, Berkeley police determined that their suspect had pulled out a handgun and pointed it at two people "who were actively fighting in the street."

The suspect, later identified as 18-year-old Guilherme Alves of Hayward, fled northbound on Telegraph Avenue and left the area, Berkeley police said.

The other people involved in the fight also left before officers arrived, BPD said.

Guilherme Alves. BPD

About seven hours later, police in Union City "discovered photographs/video of the suspect at Cali's Sports Bar during the course of an unrelated investigation," BPD said. (No other details about that case were provided.)

Police were able to use the cellphone evidence to identify Alves and get a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of brandishing a gun and assault with a deadly weapon.

Early Saturday morning, police in San Pablo arrested Alves in that city. BPD did not share any circumstances of the arrest.

As of Thursday, Alves was no longer in custody and no charges had been filed, according to court and booking records.

(Charges are often significantly delayed in out-of-custody cases because they don't have the same tight deadlines as those that apply to people who are still in jail.)

The street fight took place around the same time Joshua Block, a TikTok influencer with more than 4 million followers, was involved in a heated conflict on Telegraph Avenue.

Block wrote on TikTok that he had been "jumped in Berkeley … just for existing," while others said his vocal criticism of immigrants sparked the violence.

His TikTok video about the incident — brief footage of his face in a dark car set to a soundtrack of sad music — contained no other details. It has been viewed more than 900,000 times.

In a subsequent video, Block said he had been "punched in the mouth twice," and called it "the most insulting night out of my life," but did not otherwise elaborate.

This week, Berkeley police said the brandishing arrest was unrelated to the Block case, which is "still under investigation, and no arrests have been made."