Henry Hamada was 91 years old when he died on Saturday, October 20, 2018, in Gardena. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 1303 W. 146th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Gardena Police Department case.
Gardena police said the death was reported at 2:39 p.m. that Saturday on the 1300 block of 146th Street. Officers who responded found Hamada unresponsive, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The next day police identified him as Henry Hamada of Gardena. Lt. Christopher Cuff of the department's Investigations Bureau said the death was a homicide, but, as City News Service reported, he "did not clarify how he was killed." News reports at the time gave his age as 92, while the coroner's records list him as 91.
A memorial page posted by Green Hills, the funeral home and cemetery in Rancho Palos Verdes, gives his dates as December 1, 1926, to October 20, 2018, which means he was weeks away from his 92nd birthday. The page lists a service at Green Hills Memorial Chapel on Saturday, December 8, 2018, followed by a second service at Riverside National Cemetery on Monday, December 17, 2018. Burial at a national cemetery is generally reserved for military veterans and some of their family members, which suggests that he or a close relative may have served in the armed forces, though the page does not say so. No written obituary was posted with the tribute.
Born in 1926, Henry Hamada had lived through the Depression, the Second World War and nearly the whole of the century that followed. He died in his own city at the age of 91, in an attack whose details police have never made public. An elderly victim of blunt force trauma may have been hurt in a robbery, a burglary, a dispute with someone he knew, or an assault by a stranger, but none of those possibilities has been confirmed, and it is not publicly known whether he was found indoors or outside.
Gardena is a city in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County. It is known for its long-established Japanese American community, its card clubs and its quiet residential streets of single-family homes and small apartment buildings. 146th Street runs through one of those residential sections, where many residents have lived for decades and neighbors often know one another.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest. The killing drew brief local coverage at the time, but no follow-up reports appear to have been published.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Henry Hamada could be found in news archives or public records. More than seven years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near the 1300 block of West 146th Street in Gardena on October 20, 2018, or who knew Henry Hamada and his routines, may hold information that could help investigators. Gardena police asked anyone with information to contact Detective Patrick Goodpaster at 217-9653 or Lt. Chris Cuff at 217-9636, and to reference report number 18-5630. 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 Gardena Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
