The Pokemon Go! video game craze is making headlines more for its danger than anything else.
College baseball player Calvin Riley was shot and killed Saturday in San Francisco while playing the cellphone video game, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Officials said the 20 year old, who was a pitcher at San Joaquin Delta College in California, was gunned down by an unknown assailant around 10 p.m. near a tourist area called Fisherman's Wharf as he walked along the water. The shooter did not take any of Riley's possessions so police believe robbery was not a motive.
"There doesn't appear to be any outstanding motive right now," said U.S. Park Police detective Robert Jansing, adding that there appears to have been no witnesses to the shooting. Jansing said investigators are looking at footage from surveillance video cameras in the area to help identify the assailant.
Riley's cousin, Gabriel Morales set up a page on website GoFundMe.com to help raise funds for Riley's funeral expenses, according to the report. The campaign has raised over $60,000 thus far. On the page, Morales wrote:
"You had all the mechanics, talent and dedication to make your dreams a reality," Morales wrote to his slain cousin. "I wish I got to talk to you one more time. I would've told you how much I loved you and missed you. How bad I look forward to seeing you again."
Released over the summer, Pokemon Go! has become increasingly popular in recent months. The game employs a player's smartphone camera and GPS system and takes the user to real time physical locations to find Pokemon characters. The player then uses the camera to point out virtual characters, which are displayed over real world locations.
In the past month, several robberies have been reported by people playing the game. Two men were robbed and carjacked in Northern California, and a brother and sister were robbed in San Francisco, all while playing Pokemon Go!
