Ex-UFC Champion Released From Prison After 2022 Bay Area Shooting Sentence: Reports

SANTA CLARA, CA — Former UFC champion Cain Velasquez has been released from prison less than a year after being convicted of trying to shoot and kill another man in the Bay Area nearly four years ago.

A video online shows Velasquez being released and reunited with his family. A mariachi can also be seen standing by.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed the former fighter had been released after serving "his full sentence as defined by the law," according to ABC7.

The former heavyweight champion was sentenced to five years in prison in March 2025 after being found guilty of a controversial shooting near a crowded school in 2022 that left a bystander wounded, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.

Velasquez believed a daycare worker had molested his four-year-old son and tried to shoot him, according to prosecutors and an ABC7 report.

He fired his gun into a truck carrying the worker, Harry Goularte, his mother and stepfather.

Velazquez then rammed it and continued to shoot as a nearby school was letting students out for the day. During the shooting, he struck Goularte's stepfather, who was driving the truck, in the right arm, according to prosecutors.

Velasquez chased the truck for 11 miles at a high speed through San Jose, where he continued to fire rounds from his .40 handgun at them, authorities said.

The daycare worker wasn't injured in the attack, and Velasquez was eventually taken into custody by the Morgan Hill Police Department in connection with the shooting.

Meanwhile, Goularte continues to face charges of child molestation. He is currently out of police custody after a judge released him on his own recognizance with a GPS monitor.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and is due back in court in April.