FBI seeks leads in 2016 Pokemon Go murder in San Francisco: Bay Area Unsolved

Video Podcast episodes of Bay Area Unsolved are on our YouTube page.

Bria Riley struggled to control the tears when she talked about losing her big brother Calvin. He was 20 at the time, and she was just 10.

"It ruined my childhood," she said. "And I feel like I had to grow up a lot for this to understand it. Because I couldn't understand it - and it hurts."

This was the first time she'd spoken publicly about his murder in 2016. He was playing the augmented reality game Pokémon Go in San Francisco's Aquatic Park when he was shot in the back. The attack came out of nowhere as he and a friend walked along the waterfront.

"His friend thought that Cal was joking," remembered his mother, Kariann Riley. "Because he heard, he heard the gunshots, and he saw Cal on the ground."

Kariann says it's like a horrible dream repeating itself over and over. His father, Sean Riley, can't stop replaying the scene in his mind.

"He got killed right here," Sean told me, indicating the spot on the path in the park. "So, somebody was waiting for him right over here near one of these trees, and he was walking this way, and he shot him in the back."

There were no surveillance cameras. Witnesses described two men, one driving a vehicle accompanied by a blonde woman, the other seen recording video. Ballistics technicians, bullet trajectory experts, and medical examiners scoured the evidence. The Rileys buried their son. Bria struggled to move on.

"He's supposed to be here," she said through her tears. "He was just too good."

After six years with no arrest, Calvin's case moved from the San Francisco Police Department, to the U.S. Park Police, to the FBI. But the Special Agent in Charge told me, this is no cold case.

"I'm getting some information, and the investigation is yielding information that is directing us a little bit closer and closer to that shooter," Casey Smith said when we talked recently in her office.

She's zeroing in on those persons of interest and the geography of that tourist spot: a getaway car only had one way in and one way out from the parking area along Van Ness Avenue. And she knows what cars witnesses saw.

"Of the most interest is a white Hyundai Sonata," she explained. "That vehicle was arriving shortly before the shooting, and it was described as peeling out. The tires were heard screeching. It actually almost struck pedestrians in the area, and it fled at a very high rate of speed. So that vehicle is obviously of most interest. Additionally, it's believed that an Audi A3 wagon did arrive, may have arrived, in tandem with that Hyundai Sonata."

Smith also explained the little bit more information she needs to close this case, because sometimes members of the public don't realize the tidbit they offer is more important than they know.

"If it's not relevant, we can quickly rule that out," she said. "The public might not know a little piece of information, where their piece of information might be that missing puzzle piece. Please come forward is my message to them. Anything can help."

I asked Sean Riley if he thought someone was waiting in the park that night for his son.

"Yeah, somebody was here to kill somebody. Was he here to kill Calvin? I'm not sure, but yeah, he, definitely, there was somebody waiting for him," he replied. "He was the best. He was selfless. Put others in front of him. He loved his family; he was all about his brother and his sister."

That sibling connection is what hurts his mother the most.

"I hurt more for her and her brother than I do for the loss that they have that this person took from them, that makes me angry," Kariann Riley said. "I lost my son, but like I said, I'm supposed to go before my kids, and they're supposed to have each other for their lifetime, and it got cut so short."

"He was just the best older brother," Bria Riley added. "I know people say that once people pass away, they're the best person ever, but he really was the best person ever before. He really was."

The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information in this case. They would like to hear any information you have, no matter how insignificant it may seem. Call the San Francisco Field Office at 415-553-7400 or use the tip submission website: tips.fbi.gov