Police said a man and a woman were discovered wounded in downtown Riverside after a 2 a.m. call and were pronounced dead at the scene.
RIVERSIDE, CA — A man and a woman were found dead near the Riverside County courthouse in downtown Riverside early Thursday after police responded to a report of a person down and found both victims with wounds that investigators said may have come from a stabbing.
The killings shut down part of the city center for hours, drew a large police response around the courthouse and juror parking area, and left detectives still trying late Thursday to determine exactly what happened, whether the two victims knew each other and who attacked them. Riverside police said no arrest had been announced by Thursday evening, no suspect description had been released and the motive remained unclear as officers sought surveillance video and witness accounts from the area around Main, 12th and Orange streets.
Police were called just after 2 a.m. to the area near Main and 12th streets after an initial report of a person down. When officers arrived, they found two wounded people in separate but nearby locations. One body was on a sidewalk beside the courthouse juror parking lot, and the second was found around the corner on another sidewalk nearby. Firefighters and paramedics pronounced both victims dead at the scene. Detective Steven Espinoza said there was early mention of a stabbing in the dispatch call, but investigators had not publicly settled by Thursday on the precise cause of death. He said the deaths were being handled as a homicide investigation. By midmorning, yellow tape stretched across parts of Orange Street and nearby intersections as investigators marked evidence and moved in and out of the secured area.
Authorities publicly identified the victims only as an adult man and an adult woman by late Thursday, and police had not released their names pending family notification. Investigators also had not said whether a knife or any other weapon had been recovered. Espinoza said police did not yet know the relationship between the two victims, a detail that could shape whether the case points to a targeted attack, a chance encounter or some other chain of events. He said officers were trying to gather security footage and witness statements to build a timeline from the hours before the attack. “My understanding is that they are looking for a suspect at this time,” Espinoza said, adding that detectives were seeking any video or description that could help identify the person responsible. Police also said no one was in custody as of Thursday and no clear account had emerged of what led to the violence outside one of downtown Riverside’s busiest government blocks.
The scene unfolded in a part of downtown that mixes court buildings, parking structures, restaurants, college traffic and regular early-morning foot traffic. The courthouse area is close to Riverside City College and sits within a stretch of central streets that are usually busy with workers, jurors, students and people passing through the downtown core. On Thursday, that routine gave way to blocked streets, patrol vehicles and investigators working around two outdoor crime scenes. Orange Street was closed between 10th and 12th streets for several hours while detectives documented the area. A local worker told television reporters that one of the victims was well known nearby and often slept near the jury parking lot, though police had not confirmed where either victim lived or whether either was homeless. That unconfirmed account quickly became part of the neighborhood talk around the taped-off scene, underscoring how many basic facts were still unsettled even as officers remained visible through much of the day.
Other details from the scene pointed to how broad the evidence search had become. A student news outlet that reached the area later in the morning reported helicopters circling above campus and officers spread around the judicial plaza and nearby blocks. Reporters there saw investigators collecting clothing as evidence and speaking with people who appeared to know at least one of the dead. One nearby restaurant manager said the streets were already closed when he arrived for work at about 5:30 a.m. A security guard working in the area told local reporters that a recent shooting near a nearby car wash had already put people on edge, though he said serious violence is not usually what workers expect on that block. Those accounts do not answer the core question of who killed the man and woman, but they help show the length of the police operation and the effect the case had on people whose day started within view of the courthouse tape.
For investigators, the next formal steps are likely to center on identification, autopsies, forensic testing and a more complete canvass of the downtown camera network. Police have said little publicly about the evidence collected at the scene, and by Thursday evening they had not announced whether detectives had isolated a suspect route, identified a getaway vehicle or tied the deaths to any earlier 911 calls. The Riverside County coroner is expected to determine the official causes and manners of death, findings that could settle the question raised by police about whether both victims were stabbed or suffered some other form of trauma. Detectives are also expected to continue reviewing surveillance video from government buildings, parking structures and nearby businesses. If a suspect is identified, prosecutors would then decide whether to file murder charges. If not, the case could remain open while police seek more witness tips, digital evidence and forensic results in the coming days.
Even with many facts still missing, the killings left a visible mark on downtown Riverside Thursday. People heading to work, jury service and class were rerouted around the courthouse zone, and some stopped at the tape line trying to learn who had died. A man who works nearby told reporters that one victim had been a familiar presence in the area for years. “Everybody loves him,” the man said, describing someone neighbors tried to help with blankets and food. That brief memory stood in contrast to the sparse official details released by police and the grim work of investigators moving between two sidewalks near the courthouse. By late in the day, the strongest public message from police was still a request for help. Espinoza said anyone who heard or saw anything around the downtown courthouse area early Thursday should contact investigators as they work to piece together the final movements of both victims and identify the person who killed them.
As of Thursday night, Riverside police had not announced an arrest, identified the victims or released a suspect description. The next major developments are expected to come when the coroner identifies the dead and detectives provide an update on evidence gathered from the courthouse area and nearby streets.
Author note: Last updated March 12, 2026.