J'Sean Omiuinque McGee was 23 years old when he died on Monday, August 9, 2021, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near 3139 Fashion Avenue, a residential street in the northwest part of the city. His death was ruled a homicide and investigated by the Long Beach Police Department.
McGee was a young Black man, barely into adulthood. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no news outlet reported on his death. The Long Beach Police Department regularly issues press releases about homicides and asks the public for help, but no release about his death could be located, and his name does not appear in any later report of an arrest.
The address recorded for his death is on a quiet block of single-family homes rather than a busy street or business district, which suggests he may have been hurt at or near a home. But the circumstances have never been made public. It is not known whether he was attacked by someone he knew, whether there was a fight, whether he was struck with an object or by a vehicle, or whether anyone was detained. Nothing published says whether investigators identified a suspect, or whether anyone was ever questioned in his death.
Fashion Avenue lies in West Long Beach, the part of the city west of the Long Beach Freeway, a working-class area of tract houses and small apartment buildings close to the industrial land around the Port of Long Beach. Many families there have lived in the same homes for generations, and neighbors on blocks like his often know one another well. Long Beach, the second-largest city in Los Angeles County with about 450,000 residents, has its own police department, which handles homicides in the city independently of the Sheriff's Department and the LAPD.
His death came during a violent stretch for the region. The city of Los Angeles recorded 397 homicides in 2021, the most since 2006, according to the Los Angeles Times, and killings also rose across many of the county's other cities. Most victims were shot. A young man's death from blunt force injuries on a residential street in Long Beach drew no news coverage at all, which makes it all the more important that anyone who knows something comes forward.
At 23, J'Sean McGee had most of his life still ahead of him. Somewhere there are family members and friends who remember him and who may still be waiting for answers about what happened on that Monday in August 2021. No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to his death could be found in news archives or public records, and more than four years later, as far as the public record shows, no one has been held responsible. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the Long Beach Police Department Homicide Detail at 562-570-7244, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
