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On the night of Saturday, August 6, 2016, Calvin Riley was walking the waterfront path at Aquatic Park in San Francisco with a phone in his hand, playing Pokemon Go. It was around 9:50 p.m. A friend was a short distance ahead of him, near the end of the promenade close to Ghirardelli Square. Then came a single shot from behind. Calvin went down. The friend who saw it described a person who "just came up and shot him in the back and ran away," with no words and no confrontation. Calvin Riley was 20 years old. Nearly ten years on, no one has been charged.

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information that leads to identifying and establishing probable cause to arrest the individual or individuals responsible for the death of Calvin Riley.

Who he was

Calvin Riley was a 20-year-old from San Mateo, California. He pitched for the San Joaquin Delta College Mustangs, the community college team in Stockton, and helped them reach the 2016 California Community College Athletic Association baseball final four. Coaches and teammates remembered a strong arm and a curveball. He had graduated from Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo in 2015. His Delta College coach, Reed Peters, said Calvin "was loved by all those that knew him" and had "a bulldog mentality that you loved to have with the game on the line," closing with "RIP 27" for the number Calvin wore. The reach of his death stretched beyond the diamond. Former NFL quarterback Tom Brady, himself a Junipero Serra graduate, wrote a letter to the grieving family.

The timeline

August 6, 2016, around 9:50 p.m.: Calvin is shot from behind while playing Pokemon Go on the waterfront path at Aquatic Park, a friend a short distance away.

2016: The U.S. Park Police release a sketch of the man believed to be the gunman and name a white four-door Toyota Avalon (a 2013 to 2015 model), reportedly driven by a woman, as the car seen leaving the scene.

July 10, 2017: U.S. Representative Jackie Speier announces a $50,000 City of San Francisco reward. Combined with $50,000 from Calvin's family and $10,000 from the U.S. Park Police, the total reaches $110,000. The Park Police also add two more cars of interest, a black Audi A3 (a 2006 to 2009 model) and a white four-door Hyundai Sonata.

January 2023: The FBI San Francisco Field Office takes over the case.

Late June 2025: The FBI releases a new sketch, this one of a second person of interest.

The evidence

The current FBI framing centers on two vehicles: a 2015 white Hyundai Sonata and a dark-colored Audi A3 wagon. Investigators say the two cars arrived together shortly before the killing and departed in tandem immediately after it. That single detail, two vehicles moving as a pair around the moment of the shooting, is the strongest thread in the case. The earlier white Toyota Avalon was the initial 2016 lead, later supplanted by this pairing.

The physical evidence is limited. The bullet that killed Calvin traveled on a north to northwest trajectory, and he was struck from behind. There was no robbery. His phone and his wallet were untouched, which is part of why investigators have described the shooting as apparently random. There were no surveillance cameras at the scene, so ballistics technicians, bullet trajectory experts, and medical examiners had to scour what physical evidence there was.

The FBI describes two persons of interest, and it is careful not to call them suspects. Individual One is believed to be the driver of a vehicle, parked in the area, that also carried a blonde female. Individual Two is an additional male who was seen recording video at the crime scene. Neither has been named, and neither has been called the shooter.

The investigation

Aquatic Park is federal park land, so the case began with the U.S. Park Police, with SFPD assistance. In January 2023 the FBI San Francisco Field Office assumed control. The reward history runs in two chapters: the 2017-era total of $110,000, and the FBI's current offer of up to $25,000 for information leading to identification and probable cause to arrest those responsible. The most recent public move came in late June 2025, when the FBI released a sketch of Individual Two, described as a bearded man seen recording video of the scene. With no cameras and few witnesses, the investigation has leaned on the vehicle descriptions, the sketches, and repeated public appeals from Calvin's parents, Sean and Kariann Riley, who have gone on the record again and again asking anyone who knows something to come forward.

The theories

No one has been charged, so everything past this point is a theory. Investigators and the FBI have characterized the shooting as apparently random, with no motive ever established, and have floated the possibility of mistaken identity, one person shot in place of another. Calvin's father, Sean Riley, does not accept that his son's death was random. His personal belief is that someone was lying in wait at the park for a target. "Somebody was here to kill somebody," he told CBS. "Was he here to kill Calvin? I'm not sure, but yeah, definitely, there was somebody waiting for him." That is a grieving father's read, not an investigative finding, and the record still lists no motive.

Where it stands

As of 2026, the murder of Calvin Riley is an unsolved homicide, nearly ten years after the night at Aquatic Park. The FBI San Francisco Field Office is the lead agency, and the standing reward is up to $25,000. Sean Riley has said the killing "ripped my family apart," and still credited the investigators, saying "I think they've done an outstanding job." His mother, Kariann, has put the family's need plainly: "It's so important to our family to have closure, to find the person that shot my baby boy."

Name: Calvin Riley
Age: 20
Date: August 6, 2016, around 9:50 p.m.
Location: Aquatic Park, San Francisco
Lead agency: FBI San Francisco Field Office
Reward: up to $25,000
Case status: unsolved

Anyone with information can call the FBI San Francisco Field Office at 415-553-7400 or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.