KTLA

Riverside police make arrest in 2020 homicide

After nearly a year and a half, an arrest has been made in the 2020 shooting death of a man near a Riverside park.

The Dec. 22, 2020, killing of 32-year-old father of nine Cedric Omarr Dempsey took place behind Bordwell Park in the 2000 block of Martin Luther King Boulevard, the Riverside Police Department said in a news release.


Investigators determined that the suspect in the killing of Dempsey, who was shot in the head, is 50-year-old Riverside man Arthur Lawrence Akins III, who was arrested at his apartment on El Cerrito Avenue Saturday morning.

Police did not reveal a suspected motive for the killing, nor did they divulge why they suspect Akins in the shooting.

Akins is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center, according to jail records.

He faces charges of murder and shooting a firearm causing great bodily injury in the commission of a felony, and he is due to appear in court at the Riverside Hall of Justice at 8 a.m. Wednesday, court records show.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Bryon Adcox at 951-353-7134 or jadcox@riversideca.gov, or Detective Trevor Childers at 951-353-7130 or TChilders@RiversideCA.gov.

To submit information anonymously, email RPDTips@RiversideCA.gov.