A 29-year-old Richmond man is facing 11 felony charges, including murder, after prosecutors say he shot at six people over a single weekend and is also responsible for killing 23-year-old Josue Cornejo nearly a year earlier. Joshawn Harris was arrested on September 30 and is being held on $4 million bail, with the suspected motive behind the shootings still unknown to police.
Contra Costa prosecutors charged Harris with murder in the fatal shooting of Josue Cornejo, six counts of assault, and four gun possession charges, according to The Mercury News. Investigators allege Harris shot at three people in Richmond before shooting at another three people, all within the same weekend, and that he was found in possession of a firearm fitted with an extended magazine. Harris has not yet gone before a judge, and court records show the full slate of charges against him, per the same report.
Cornejo was shot and killed at around 5:55 a.m. on November 17, 2025, on the 1400 block of Bissell Avenue, after Richmond police officers were dispatched when the city's ShotSpotter gunshot detection system picked up the gunfire, according to the Richmond Standard. Officers found the 23-year-old with multiple gunshot wounds and declared him dead at the scene. Police later released surveillance footage showing a masked person of interest captured by a security camera, though the suspected motive for the shootings has not been revealed.
A Young Man Killed Near Home
Family members said Cornejo was shot in the back while walking home less than half a mile from where he lived, near Marina Way and Bissell Street, and that none of his personal belongings were taken, according to Richmondside. An online fundraiser described him as a good son, a loving friend, and a humble young man with a big heart, adding that he did not deserve to be killed. Cornejo was born on January 1, 2002, at Stanford Hospital.
Harris has four older felony convictions, including a 2022 conviction for pimping, the Mercury News reports. He was also arrested on suspicion of burglary in August 2026 but was released without charges, according to public records cited by the outlet.
A Historic Low Year Shadowed by a Late Surge
Cornejo's killing was one of six homicides recorded in Richmond in 2025, the city's lowest annual murder total on record and a steep drop from a peak of 61 homicides in 1991, per Richmondside. But that historic low came alongside a troubling trend: Richmond police reported a 163% surge in shooting incidents during the final quarter of the year, with 50 of the year's 110 total shooting incidents occurring in those last 90 days, concentrated in the Iron Triangle and South Richmond Annex neighborhoods, according to figures Assistant Police Chief Tim Simmons presented to the Community Police Review Commission, as reported by the Grandview Independent.
City and county officials have leaned on both intervention and enforcement to address that pattern. A study published in JAMA Network Open found that Richmond's Office of Neighborhood Safety and its Peacemaker Fellowship program, which relies on non-law enforcement street outreach and mentorship targeting high-risk individuals, contributed to a 61% sustained reduction in citywide firearm homicides and injury shootings over a 14-year period, according to the Greater Good Science Center.
Legal Exposure Facing Harris
On the enforcement side, the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office launched a dedicated Gun Violence Prevention Task Force in July 2024 in partnership with the Richmond Police Department and county probation, working to verify that prohibited individuals surrender firearms and comply with court orders under state Assembly Bill 732, according to the Contra Costa County government.
The gun possession charges against Harris fall under California statutes that carry significant prison exposure. Under Penal Code Section 29800, possessing a firearm after a felony conviction is itself a felony punishable by state prison time, according to the Shouse Law Group. Separately, California law addresses large-capacity magazines, with penalties varying depending on the conduct. The six assault counts Harris faces could carry two, three, or four years in state prison per count under Penal Code Section 245(a)(2), or up to a year in county jail with fines reaching $10,000, per Eisner Gorin LLP, which notes that assault with a firearm does not require that a victim actually be injured.
