The Richmond Police Department on Thursday released a video showing last week’s arrest of Joshawn Harris on suspicion of homicide after investigators connected him to a recent spate of vehicle shootings.
Harris, 29, was booked into the Martinez detention center and is being held on $6.5 million bail. In addition to the homicide charge, he’s facing multiple additional charges of assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm related to the other shootings.
Police believe Harris shot Josue Cornejo, 23, on Nov. 17, 2026 less than a half mile away from his mother’s home, at the corner of Marina Way Avenue and Bissell Street. She later told Richmondside she had heard the gunshots.
According to Richmond police, Cornejo was shot just before 6 a.m. and died at the scene. The family says that he was shot in the back and that nothing was stolen from him.
On Dec. 2, Richmond police released a photo of a masked person they said was “of interest” in the case and asked the public to help them identify the person.
But they hadn’t tracked anyone down until officers investigating someone shooting at vehicles on Sept. 25, 26 and 28th, at Ohio Avenue and South 33rd Street, made a connection to the suspect in Cornejo’s death. In those shootings, “multiple vehicles were struck by gunfire,” according to a video posted by the Richmond Police Department. There were no reports of injuries.
When police suspected that Harris was in downtown Richmond on Sept. 30, they sent a drone to fly over the Richmond BART station on Macdonald Avenue and spotted a man later identified as Harris casually standing outside the station around noon. A smoke bang device was deployed, startling him, and a SWAT team surrounded him. Police said he was carrying a high-capacity ammunition storage device.
Cornejo was described as a caring, quiet and happy young man who was a homebody and often kept to himself, though he yearned for more adult independence as he entered his 20s and enjoyed taking walks around his neighborhood.
When Richmondside spoke to Cornejo’s family in November his mother had said she hoped that technologies and cameras would help police solve the case.
“God knows who it was,” Romero said at the time. “We just can only pray to him so that he can bring justice and guide the people investigating.”
Richmondside City Hall reporter Joel Umanzor contributed to this report.
