A predawn car chase that began on a Riverside street and ended with gunfire on the campus of Riverside Poly High School has left a 33-year-old San Bernardino man dead and two men facing murder charges. Robert Moore was shot during what prosecutors describe as a car-to-car attack that started blocks away and spilled onto the historic campus, where he was later found by responding officers.
According to MyNewsLA.com, the attack began in the predawn hours of July 5 in the 3300 block of Central Avenue, when Arthur Joseph Henderson, 27, and Omarey Trayvon Hart, 20, allegedly chased Moore's vehicle and opened fire on it. Riverside Police Department Detective Steve Espinosa said the pursuit and initial gunfire targeting Moore's car began there before advancing onto the Poly High School grounds, where the two vehicles ultimately collided in the parking lot.
A second burst of gunfire erupted after the crash, per the same account, before the defendants fled the scene. Riverside police patrol officers responded to the 5400 block of Victoria Avenue after 911 callers reported gunfire, and found Moore at the campus. He was rushed to Riverside Community Hospital, where he died of his wounds shortly after arriving.
A Campus Emptied for Summer
Poly High School was closed for summer break at the time, meaning no students or staff were on campus during the shooting. The school, located at Victoria and Central avenues, was established in 1887 as Riverside's first high school, according to Wikipedia, and moved to its current Victoria Avenue site in September 1965. The campus also hosts the oldest Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program west of the Mississippi River, first established there in 1917.
A second person was riding in Moore's vehicle during the attack but was not injured, the article notes. That passenger's identity has not been disclosed, and no motive for the attack has been made public. Investigators with the Riverside Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Unit, the specialized unit responsible for major violent crimes across the city, led the case.
Suspects Tracked Down Weeks Apart
Detectives identified Hart as an alleged gunman within a couple of days of the shooting and took him into custody on July 8 on West Flora Street in Ontario, the outlet reported. Henderson remained at large for roughly a month before he was arrested on Bear Valley Road in Victorville, San Bernardino County, on August 5.
Hart, an Ontario resident with no priors in adult court, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and attempted murder. He also faces sentence-enhancing gun allegations and great bodily injury allegations, and remains held on $2 million bail at what court records refer to as the Murrieta jail. That facility is the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center, a 1,111-bed Riverside County Sheriff's Office jail on Auld Road in Murrieta's French Valley region that opened in 1993 as the Southwest Detention Center, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office.
Henderson, a Las Vegas resident, appeared before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gail O'Rane, who appointed him a public defender. He was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and also faces sentence-enhancing gun allegations. Henderson has a prior conviction, though details of that record were not made available. He is held in lieu of $2 million bail at the same Cois M. Byrd Detention Center where Hart is housed.
Potential Decades Behind Bars
Both men are scheduled to return to court on August 31 at the Riverside Hall of Justice, the downtown courthouse that serves as the primary criminal facility for Riverside County Superior Court. If convicted of first-degree murder, each faces a mandatory 25 years to life in state prison under California Penal Code Section 187, according to DCD Law.
The sentence-enhancing gun allegations filed against both defendants could add substantially more time. Under Penal Code Section 12022.53, California's so-called “10-20-Life” law, intentionally discharging a firearm during a felony that causes death or great bodily injury carries an additional, consecutive term of 25 years to life, per the Shouse Law Group. Henderson's separate felon-in-possession charge, brought under Penal Code Section 29800, carries up to three additional years in state prison independent of the underlying violent felony charges.
Key questions remain unresolved as the case heads toward its next hearing. Investigators have not disclosed why Moore's vehicle was targeted in the first place, and the uninjured second passenger from his car has not been publicly identified as a witness. For now, both defendants remain in custody as prosecutors prepare their case ahead of the August 31 court date.
