Two people were found dead near the Riverside County courthouse early Thursday after officers responded to a person-down call in downtown Riverside and discovered an adult man and an adult woman with serious wounds, police said.
The killings turned one of downtown Riverside’s busiest government blocks into a large crime scene before sunrise and left detectives trying to answer basic questions by Thursday night. Police had not announced an arrest, released a suspect description or publicly identified the victims. Investigators also said they had not determined the relationship between the two dead and had not publicly settled on the exact cause of death. The case is being handled as a homicide investigation, with detectives seeking surveillance footage and witness accounts from the area around Main, 12th and Orange streets.
Riverside police said officers were called just after 2 a.m. Thursday to the area near Main and 12th streets after an initial report of a person down. When they arrived, they found two wounded people in separate but nearby locations. One body was on a sidewalk next to the courthouse juror parking lot, and the second was found around the corner on another sidewalk nearby. Firefighters and paramedics were sent to the scene and pronounced both victims dead there. By midmorning, yellow tape stretched across parts of Orange Street and nearby intersections while investigators moved between the two sidewalk scenes. Television helicopter footage showed blue canopies over evidence areas and detectives marking the pavement as traffic was pushed away from the block.
Detective Steven Espinoza, a spokesperson for the Riverside Police Department, said the first dispatch information included mention of a stabbing, but he cautioned that investigators had not yet publicly confirmed whether both victims were killed that way. “There was mention of a stabbing in the initial call, but it’s undetermined at this time if it truly was a stabbing or not,” Espinoza said. Even so, police said the inquiry had been assigned to the department’s Robbery-Homicide Division. Espinoza said officers had not said whether a knife or any other weapon had been recovered, and he said detectives did not yet know whether the man and woman knew each other. That unanswered detail could shape the direction of the case, including whether detectives are looking at a targeted attack, a dispute that spilled onto the street or some other chain of events that has not yet been made public.
By Thursday afternoon, investigators were still trying to build a timeline from the victims’ last known movements and from whatever may have happened on the block in the minutes before officers arrived. Espinoza said detectives were seeking footage and descriptions that might help identify whoever was responsible. “My understanding is that they are looking for a suspect at this time,” he said. He added that police wanted to hear from anyone who heard or saw anything near the courthouse area in the early morning hours. Officers remained at the scene for hours, and part of Orange Street between 10th and 12th streets was closed while evidence was documented. The prolonged closure underscored how little detectives were prepared to say publicly on the first day beyond confirming that two people were dead and that no one was in custody.
The setting added to the shock. The killings happened in a part of downtown that is usually crowded on weekdays with court employees, jurors, lawyers, restaurant workers and students moving between nearby blocks. The courthouse area sits close to parking structures, government offices and Riverside City College, making it a place where pedestrian traffic starts early and stays steady. On Thursday, that routine was replaced by patrol vehicles, taped-off sidewalks and investigators working in plain view of commuters and passersby. Some people who work nearby said one of the victims was a familiar presence around the courthouse zone. A man who works in the area and declined to give his name told local television reporters that the victim had long slept near the jury parking lot and was known by workers who brought him blankets and food. “Everybody loves him,” the man said.
Police have not confirmed those accounts, and they had not said by late Thursday whether either victim was homeless or living in the downtown area. They also had not released ages, hometowns or any details about how the two came to be in the courthouse district at that hour. That left a wide gap between what nearby workers believed they knew about at least one victim and what officials were prepared to confirm. It also left open the question of whether the two deaths are connected mainly by place and timing or by a relationship that detectives have not yet uncovered. For people who arrived for work after sunrise, the uncertainty was hard to miss. Streets near the judicial plaza were already blocked, and anyone headed toward the courthouse, nearby offices or campus had to move around a scene that suggested a far larger evidence search than a routine early-morning call.
The next formal steps are likely to come through the coroner and through the slow work of homicide investigators. The Riverside County coroner is expected to identify the dead once relatives are notified and to determine the official causes and manners of death. Those findings may answer one of the main questions police left open Thursday, which is whether both victims died from stab wounds or from some other form of trauma. Detectives are also expected to keep reviewing surveillance video from government buildings, parking structures and nearby businesses, and to continue interviewing anyone who was in the area around the time of the attack. If police identify a suspect, prosecutors would then decide what charges to file. If they do not, the case could remain open while officers wait for autopsy results, forensic testing and additional witness statements.
For now, the strongest public message from police is that much of the story remains unfinished. Investigators know where the bodies were found and roughly when the emergency response began, but they have not said what led to the violence, whether the victims were together before they were killed or how the attacker left the area. That uncertainty has given the case an unsettled feel in a section of downtown built around public institutions and daily routine. By late Thursday, detectives were still working to turn a pair of bodies on two sidewalks into a clear timeline, a motive and a name.
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 when the coroner identifies the dead and investigators provide an update on evidence gathered near the courthouse.
Author note: Last updated March 12, 2026.