Antonio Bahena was 76 years old when he died on Friday, January 10, 2020, in South Park, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near 4803 South Central Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled out of the department's Central area.
He was a Latino man in his mid-70s, an age when many men are grandfathers or great-grandfathers. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Antonio Bahena has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no news outlet appears to have reported on the death. He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was beaten in a fight, attacked by a stranger, assaulted indoors or on the street, or struck by a vehicle, all of which can lead to a finding of blunt force trauma. It does not say what time of day he was hurt, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
South Central Avenue was once the center of Black Los Angeles, home to the jazz clubs, hotels and businesses that made it famous in the 1940s. Today the stretch around 48th Street, in the neighborhood known as South Park, is largely Latino and working class, a corridor of small shops, churches, auto shops, apartment buildings and older homes. Many of its older residents have lived there for decades. Elderly people walking along a busy commercial street, waiting at bus stops or living alone are often vulnerable to robberies and assaults.
Los Angeles recorded about 260 homicides in 2019, among the lowest yearly totals in more than half a century, yet many of those killings still went unsolved. His death came in the first days of 2020, before the pandemic changed daily life. A 76-year-old man beaten to death on Central Avenue might be expected to draw attention, but no news coverage of his death could be found.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Antonio Bahena could be found in news archives or public records. More than six years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone who lives or works near the 4800 block of South Central Avenue may remember a robbery, a fight or a police response in early January 2020, and anyone who knew him may hold information that could help. 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
