On April 20, 2024, at about 10:30 p.m., deputies responded to a reported shooting in the 500 block of Lodgeview Drive in the Kelly Ridge area of Oroville. Officers found 61-year-old Richard Alan Kelly of Chico lying dead in the street next to his vehicle with a gunshot wound to the face.

A female resident of the home identified her boyfriend, 54-year-old Joseph Andrew Perkins of Oroville, as the shooter. She said Kelly had taken her car shopping earlier that day and, upon returning that evening, was confronted by an angry Perkins who brandished a firearm, pulled Kelly from his car, assaulted him with the gun and then shot him in the head. Perkins allegedly fled in the homeowner’s vehicle, which was later found abandoned less than half a mile away.

An arrest warrant was issued the night of the shooting. Perkins was located and arrested on April 26, 2024, in Stockton; a search of a Stockton residence turned up several firearms, including a loaded pistol under the pillow of the bed Perkins had been using. He was charged with murder, an enhancement for firearm use and being a felon in possession of a firearm, and was arraigned on April 30, 2024, held without bail.

If anyone witnessed the confrontation on Lodgeview Drive or has information about Kelly’s movements that day, please share what is known.