Riverside Police Shoot, Kill Corona Man

A Corona man accused of pointing a handgun at officers from the Riverside Police Department has been fatally shot, authorities are reporting.

Rashad Hopes, 26, was shot during a confrontation with the officers shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Hopes was pronounced dead at the scene in the 3400 block of Van Buren Boulevard in Riverside at 11:21 p.m., according to a coroner’s report.

According to the Riverside Police Department report, at approximately 11 p.m. one of its officers came across a traffic collision on Van Buren at the 91 Freeway.

The officer stopped to investigate and spoke to a driver in the crash vehicle. The passenger, however, walked away toward a nearby gas station, according to the report.

In the meantime, citizens driving by the crash were calling into the police dispatch center to report a man walking away from the scene with gun, according to the police statement. 

Additional officers were called out to search for the allegedly armed man, who was later identified as Hopes. They found him behind the gas station, but he took off running in the direction of officers in front of the building, according to the report.

“The subject pointed a handgun at those officers …,” the report stated.

Shots were fired by police, although its unknown how many officers’ bullets may have struck Hopes, who died at the scene.

The reason why Hopes fled is not immediately clear and it's unknown if the gun was registered to him, however police offered additional clues.

“Based on the preliminary investigation, it is believed the driver of the vehicle involved in the traffic collision was also involved in a hit-and-run accident on the westbound 91 freeway near Madison. He exited the freeway at Van Buren Boulevard and collided with the center divider,” the report stated.

The driver, Clifton Carl Chapple, a 21-year-old Riverside resident was arrested by the California Highway Patrol for hit-and-run and driving under the influence, according to the report.