Spoke with Calvin Riley's coach at San Joaquin Delta College. "Great kid. Great competitor." #abc7now pic.twitter.com/DeTzkgBLvB
— ElissaABC7 (@ElissaABC7) August 7, 2016
A man killed Saturday evening in a popular tourist area of San Francisco was the apparent victim of a random shooting, friends of the victim say, gunned down as he played Pokemon Go in an historic area near Fisherman’s Wharf.
As previously reported, 20-year-old San Mateo resident Calvin Riley was shot to death at around 9:51 Saturday night in SF's Aquatic Park, a tourist attraction near Ghirardelli Square and the Wharf.
According Riley's friends and family, he was playing Pokemon Go at the time of the shooting.
"There was a large group of people playing Pokemon and then his buddy started playing, as well. Calvin got a little bit ahead of his friend and kind of went around a corner," family friend John Kirby told ABC 7. "Then when the friend came around a corner he heard a gunshot, saw his friend fall, and whoever did it ran away and possibly got into a car."
"From what we know there was no confrontation. There was nothing said back and forth. It was just senseless, just came up and shot in the back and ran away for nothing."
According to San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park spokesperson Lynn Cullivan, the shooting, which occurred at the western end of the park, is being investigated by both United States Park Police and the San Francisco Police Department.
The SFPD didn't return emails and calls for comment on the case, but noted in report this morning that the suspect is believed to have fled in a white sedan.
“There doesn’t appear to be any outstanding motive right now,” USPP detective Sergeant Robert Jansing told the LA Times, saying that the shooter didn't take any of Riley's belongings or attempt to mug him.
The slaying "makes no sense," Jansing told the Chron.
According to Jansing, no witnesses are believed to have seen the shooter, but footage from area surveillance cameras might have caught the attacker on tape. CBS 5 reports, however, that there are "no surveillance cameras in the area where Riley was killed." An effort to clarify that point with the USPP was not successful at publication time.
Witnesses are also being sought, as the tourist attraction was still "bustling, even at 10 p.m." and “There’s a good chance someone saw something,” Jansing says.
Cullivan says that the USPP asks "anyone who may have witnessed suspicious behavior in the Aquatic Park area during the 9-10pm timeframe please contact the USPP tip line (415-561-5150) with any information."
A crime like this one is "pretty unusual,” Cullivan told CBS Boston. “Really, what we tend to see is more, you might say, tourist crimes, breaking into cars.”
Originally from Lowell, Massachusetts, Riley and his family moved to the Bay Area from the "high-crime city on the East Coast for a better and safer life," ABC 7 reports.
He graduated from Junipero Serra High School in 2015, and was attending San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, where he majored in kinesiology and was a pitcher on the school's baseball team.
"Calvin was loved by all those that knew him. He was a great person from a great family. A 20 year old with his best years ahead of him," Delta College baseball coach Reed Peters said in a statement.
"He brought the best out in all of us. He will be truly missed but never forgotten."
Riley's friends expressed similar sentiments regarding the pointlessness of the crime.
“For no reason, he was just shot for no reason. Calvin is one of the most sincere, honest, nicest person anyone could ever meet I don’t know why it would happen to him,” friend Asher Abuelrous told CBS 5.
The Ex reports that Riley's cousin, Thaddeus Riley, blames Pokemon Go for the tragedy.
Calling the game "stupid," Thaddeus Riley reportedly wrote via Facebook that “I think they made this game for all the wrong intentions....Look at it this game has made people savages...now because of the game, my little cuzzo is gone!!!! We all love you cal. I’m so glad we got to visit with you. But still was not enough.”
GoFundMe spokesperson Kate Cichy contacted SFist Sunday evening, "to send along the GoFundMe campaign that was set up by Calvin's cousin to support the family during this difficult time." In the campaign, Gabriel Antonio Morales writes "Calvin Riley you were my best friend. Nothing in the world will top the good times we've had together. You were more than a cousin/best friend to me, you were my brother."
"I know you moved out there to pursue your dreams of one day making it to the league and you had all the mechanics, talent and dedication to make your dreams a reality. But all that was taken by a coward who wanted to shoot up a PokéStop."
Previously: Man Shot To Death At San Francisco Tourist Hot Spot