Three years after a car chase on Richmond Parkway ended with a man dead behind the wheel, two people have finally been charged with his murder. Demarya Vaughn, 28, and Azizi Perkins, 27, were charged with murder and two shooting counts in connection with the November 9, 2023, killing of 26-year-old Arcjoseph Rodillo of San Pablo, with court records alleging enhancements for the commission of a drive-by murder.
The charges, announced this week, come after a case that sat unresolved for years, according to The Mercury News. Vaughn and Perkins have not entered pleas, and the outlet reports that a motive for the shooting has not been publicly disclosed. The case stems from a chase on Richmond Parkway that witnesses described to police at the time as involving another vehicle pursuing Rodillo while someone opened fire.
What Happened That Night on Richmond Parkway
Rodillo was shot at least once on the parkway between Goodrick Avenue and Giant Highway in the early hours of November 9, 2023, and his car then crashed into the center median, according to reporting at the time from mercurynews.com. Police said witnesses reported that a driver in another vehicle had been pursuing Rodillo as someone fired shots from that car. He was rushed to a hospital but died from his injuries over that weekend, and authorities identified him publicly a few days later as Arcjoseph Rodillo, 26, of San Pablo.
For nearly three years, the case remained without an arrest. The new charges against Vaughn and Perkins mark the first public breakthrough in identifying suspects in Rodillo's death, though the court filings reviewed by the news outlet do not spell out which defendant is accused of driving or firing the weapon.
A City That Had Been Trending Toward Fewer Homicides
The shooting happened during a year that otherwise stood out in Richmond's crime statistics. The city recorded eight homicides in 2023, which an assistant police chief called the lowest number in police records going back more than 50 years, according to the Grandview Independent. “Eight was our official number,” the assistant chief, identified as Simmons, said. “We have records going back 50-something years in the police department, and we have never even come close to that number.”
That tally has not gone unchallenged. The same Grandview Independent report noted that the city's own 2023 Crime Statistics page listed 11 homicides, a figure that included an officer-involved shooting death and two vehicular manslaughter incidents not considered traditional homicides under the police department's count. The East Bay Times similarly reported the eight-homicide figure as the city's lowest since officials began tracking in 1971, down sharply from 22 homicides in 2020 and 18 each in 2021 and 2022.
How Richmond Compares to Its Neighbors
Richmond's previous record low had been 11 killings in 2014, a number that jumped back up to 21 homicides the very next year, the East Bay Times reported, underscoring how fragile these year-to-year dips can be. The paper also noted that major U.S. metro areas saw roughly a 12 percent drop in homicides in 2023, based on an analysis of 177 cities, suggesting Richmond's decline was part of a broader regional pattern rather than an isolated anomaly.
Nearby cities told very different stories that same year. Oakland logged 126 homicides in 2023, its fourth straight year with at least 100, while East Palo Alto reported zero homicides, according to the East Bay Times. Richmond's dramatically lower number, and the unresolved Rodillo case sitting within it, illustrate how even a record-low year can still leave a violent, unsolved killing hanging over a community for years.
Enhancements and What Comes Next
Court records in the new charges allege enhancements tied to the commission of a drive-by murder, according to The Mercury News, though the filings reviewed do not detail the specific statutes or penalties prosecutors intend to pursue. California's penal code lays out separate provisions for how such penalties are determined, according to California Legislative Information, though the supplied case filings do not confirm which of those provisions apply here.
With no pleas yet entered, the case against Vaughn and Perkins is only beginning to move through the courts. For Rodillo's family and for a city that spent 2023 pointing to its lowest homicide count in decades, the charges represent a long-delayed step toward accountability in one of the killings that didn't make it into either tally without controversy.
