A 20-year-old man was shot and killed in San Francisco while playing ‘Pokémon Go,’ the wildly popular smartphone game where you get to catch Pokémon in the real world.
Calvin Riley, a baseball player at the San Joaquin Delta College, was playing the game near the city’s Ghiradelli Square when he was randomly shot, according to SF Gate. The Los Angeles Times reports that the gunman is still at large, and U.S. Park Police have said there was no known motive to the murder. The attacker did not try to take any of Riley’s possessions.
While it’s unclear how or if ‘Pokémon Go’ and the shooting were related, the virtual reality game does distract players from their surroundings and several crimes have occurred while victims played the game, with Riley’s death being among the most recent.
“It’s hard for us to grasp that he’s not going to be there when we all come back in two weeks,” Riley’s college teammate Joey Skracic told SF Gate. “We’re just dumbfounded. It’s just really hard right now. We really loved him.”
Gabriel Morales, Riley’s cousin, set up a Go Fund Me page to help raise money for funeral expenses that has already raised over $60,000. On the page, Morales described how sad he was when Riley moved to California.
“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,” Morales wrote. “But all that was taken by a coward who wanted to shoot up a poké stop. I wish I got to talk to you one more time. I would’ve told you how much I loved you and missed you. How bad I look forward to seeing you again.”