SAN FRANCISCO – Police are investigating the shooting death of a San Joaquin Delta College student who was apparently killed while playing Pokemon Go at night at Aquatic Park in San Francisco.
Twenty-year-old Calvin Riley, a baseball standout for the San Joaquin Delta College Mustangs, was reportedly playing the popular new augmented reality game near the city’s famed Ghiradelli Square in the Fisherman’s Wharf area around 10 p.m. Saturday when he was gunned down by an unknown assailant, the San Francisco Examiner reports.
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Riley’s cousin from Nashville, Tennessee, Thaddeus Riley, was outraged by the incident, which he blamed on the “stupid” game.
“Look at it this game has made people savages,” Riley posted to Facebook Sunday. “Because of” Pokemon Go, “my little cuzzo is gone!” he wrote, according to the Examiner.
The San Francisco Police Department told the news site that Calvin Riley was shot in the torso in Aquatic Park. Police responded to a possible shooting around 9:51 p.m. and found Riley bleeding to death and first responders could not save him.
The case is now under investigation by the U.S. Park Police, KXTV reports.
“National Park Service spokesman Lynn Cullivan says investigators believe there are witnesses to the attack because it happened at the bustling tourist destination in the Fisherman’s Wharf area,” according to the news station.
U.S. Park Police Sgt. Robert Jansing told SFGate.com Sunday that the incident “makes no sense” because of all of the tourist traffic, which continues into the night. He said investigators are looking for surveillance footage or witnesses who may be able to help identify a suspect.
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“There’s a good chance somebody saw something,” he said.
All of Riley’s family, coaches and teammates described him as a well-liked, hard-working guy who excelled at life and baseball.
Mustangs coach Reed Peters told the Examiner Riley initially wanted to play infield, but the team needed a pitcher and he stepped up to fill the role, quickly becoming an effective closer with an 88 MPH fastball that was “definitely starting to get some interest” from Division 1 scouts.
“It’s a sad, sad day in the Delta (college) baseball family and [for] everyone who knew Calvin, really,” Peters said. “He did everything he wanted to do. The kind of kid you want yours to grow up to be. The bigger the challenge the better a person he was.”
“He is someone we always strive to be like, and he was such a nice kid,” teammate and fellow pitcher Joey Skracic said. “It’s hard for us to grasp that he’s not going to be there when we all come back in two weeks.
“We’re just dumbfounded,” he said. “It’s just really hard right now. We really loved him.”
Riley’s family expressed the same shock and grief on a GoFundMe page set up to help cover the funeral expenses.
“Due to this cruel world we live in, a part of my family was taken from us,” Gabriel Antonio Morales wrote on fundraising page. “When we got a call at 4:30 a.m. saying he’s gone, I thought I was having a bad dream.”
The site had raised more than $38,000 toward a $40,000 goal. The contributions came from 431 donors in the first 20 hours.


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