A 30-year-old Temecula resident was shot to death at an apartment complex Monday, and within hours deputies had tracked down a suspect who, authorities say, had walked out of prison on parole just 11 days earlier. Shaquilah Howard was found suffering from gunshot wounds in the 28000 block of Colorado Avenue and was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office, deputies from the Southwest Sheriff's Station were dispatched to the apartment complex Monday and found Howard already wounded. Investigators quickly identified 28-year-old Los Angeles resident Rashad Kysim Populus as the suspect in the shooting. The sheriff's office said he was tracked to Oxnard and taken into custody without incident later that same day.
Populus had been released on parole on September 24, 2026, stemming from a prior conviction for assault with a firearm, the sheriff's office said. That release came less than two weeks before Howard was killed, a timeline first detailed by The Press-Enterprise, which reported that Populus had been out of custody for just 11 days before the shooting.
Suspect Booked on Murder and Parole Violation
Populus was booked on suspicion of murder and a parole violation, according to the sheriff's office. The agency's Central Homicide Unit was notified and responded to take over the investigation from patrol deputies.
Little has been made public about what led to the shooting. Per MyNewsLA, no further details were available regarding what might have triggered the alleged attack on Howard or the relationship between Populus and the victim. The outlet also reported the allegation that Populus pulled a handgun and shot Howard at least once during what was described as an apparent domestic dispute.
A Broader Pattern Around Early Releases
The case echoes a separate incident reported by ABC News, in which a California suspect was accused of a fatal stabbing just a day after his release from jail and was later charged with murder. Such cases have drawn scrutiny of California's parole and release practices, though the state's own data paint a more complicated picture of reoffending trends overall.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has reported that the three-year conviction rate for people released from state prison stood at 39.1 percent in its most recent recidivism report, which the agency described as the lowest rate since reporting began, crediting rehabilitative programming and sentencing reforms under Proposition 57. The California Legislative Analyst's Office notes that the state measures recidivism by tracking arrests, new convictions and returns to prison within three years of an individual's release.
Investigators have not disclosed a possible motive in Howard's killing, nor have they released details about her relationship, if any, to Populus. The sheriff's office has not said where the underlying assault-with-a-firearm conviction that led to Populus's parole occurred.
