Avelardo Gomez was 38 years old when he died on Thursday, October 5, 2017, in Lincoln Heights, more than a month after he was attacked. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 1816 Hancock St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Hollenbeck Division case.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Gomez was beaten in the head in the 1800 block of Hancock Street on August 31, 2017. At about 5 p.m. that day, Gomez "is believed to have gotten into an altercation with another person," said Los Angeles Police Det. Jose Ramirez. Gomez was beaten in the head with a "blunt instrument," Ramirez said, and he was found by a transient who called the fire department.
Gomez was taken to a hospital, where he survived for about five weeks. He was pronounced dead on October 5 at 4:31 p.m., according to coroner's records. At the time his death was reported, detectives were "still trying to figure out the details of the altercation," Ramirez said.
Beyond those details, almost nothing about Avelardo Gomez has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found. Searches for his name turn up older men named Avelardo Gomez in Texas, New Mexico and Puerto Rico records, none of them connected to him. He surely had family and friends who sat with him during those weeks in the hospital or mourned him afterward, but none of that has entered the public record.
Lincoln Heights is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, lying just northeast of downtown on the east side of the Los Angeles River. It is a largely working-class area of older homes, apartments and small businesses, close to the Golden State Freeway, Lincoln Park and the large county medical center in neighboring Boyle Heights. Hancock Street is a residential side street in the neighborhood. A late-afternoon attack on a city street at the end of summer, with people coming home from work, raises the possibility that someone nearby heard or saw part of what happened.
By the mid-2010s Los Angeles was recording roughly 250 to 300 homicides a year, among the lowest totals in decades, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Avelardo Gomez could be found in news archives or public records. More than eight years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on Hancock Street in Lincoln Heights on the late afternoon of August 31, 2017, or who heard about a fight there, may know something that could help detectives. Detectives asked anyone with information to call them at 342-8964. 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.
