Curtis James Evans was 45 years old when he died on Friday, May 30, 2014, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 16th Street and Atlantic Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
The coroner's records describe him as a Black man, 45 years old. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Curtis James Evans 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. His name is a common one, and searches turned up only other men who share it, including a Curtis James Evans who died at his home in Long Beach in 2021 at the age of 73, years after this death.
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. The record places his death at an intersection rather than at a home address, which suggests that he may have been hurt on or near the street, though it does not say so directly.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, with its own police department, a major port and a long Pacific shoreline. Atlantic Avenue is one of its main north-south streets, running from downtown near the waterfront up through the central and northern parts of the city. The area around 16th Street lies in central Long Beach, a short distance north of downtown, in a dense part of the city with apartment buildings, older homes, small businesses, churches and busy bus routes.
An intersection on a major street like Atlantic Avenue is a place where an assault might be seen by drivers, bus riders or people walking by. Some of those witnesses may never have learned that what they saw ended in a death. Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest. The death of a 45-year-old man at a busy Long Beach intersection does not appear to have been reported by any news outlet beyond the brief entry in the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Curtis James Evans could be found in news archives or public records. More than 11 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near 16th Street and Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach in late May 2014, or who knew Curtis, may hold information that could help detectives. 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's Homicide Detail at 562-570-7244, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
