Melvin Stewart, a 60-year-old Richmond, California man known to friends and family as generous and selfless and by the nickname 4 Shaq, was shot to death on the evening of April 6, 2022. Officers responded to calls of gunfire on the 500 block of South 12th Street and found Stewart inside a vehicle in the driver’s seat with multiple gunshot wounds. Firefighters and paramedics attempted life-saving measures, but Stewart was pronounced dead at the scene. His death was recorded as Richmond’s sixth homicide of 2022.

Richmond detectives pursued multiple leads and in June 2022 a suspect, Kendrick Woods, was arrested in Arkansas and extradited to Contra Costa County. Woods refused to speak with investigators, and the motive remained unclear. In February 2026 a jury convicted Woods, then 52, of first-degree murder with a firearm enhancement; sentencing was scheduled for late March 2026.

If anyone knew Melvin Stewart, his routines, or saw activity near South 12th Street on April 6, 2022, please share information that could shed light on what happened.