Ivan Torres was 25 years old when he died on Sunday, October 28, 2012, in Lynwood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 11153 Linden Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case handled by the department's Homicide Bureau.
Ivan, who lived in Inglewood, had been at a house party on the 11100 block of Linden Street in the early morning hours. According to sheriff's homicide detectives, words were exchanged between him and another man during the party. "During the course of the party, words were exchanged between the victim and the suspect," Deputy Jeff Gordon told CBS Los Angeles. A sheriff's news release said the other man then got into his car and deliberately struck Ivan when he walked into the street. CBS reported that the driver had another man with him in the vehicle. Patch later reported that authorities said he was struck at approximately 3:53 a.m. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Within a day, detectives announced an arrest. A 23-year-old man was booked into the Century Sheriff's Station on suspicion of murder and held without bail, according to ABC7 and the Associated Press. Detectives said they were still searching for the second man who had been in the car.
The case did not hold. On November 7, 2012, Patch reported, the man who had been accused of running Ivan down was set free. "We asked that it be dismissed in the interest of justice," a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said. "There were issues involving the sufficiency of the evidence." The man had maintained his innocence. The spokesperson said there was an ongoing investigation and declined to comment further. No later charge against anyone could be found, and the second man in the car was never publicly identified.
A dismissal is not a finding of guilt or innocence; it means prosecutors did not believe they could prove the case at that time. That leaves the death of Ivan Torres officially unresolved, with key questions still open: who was behind the wheel, who else was in the car, and what the argument at the party was about.
Lynwood is a small, densely populated city in southeast Los Angeles County, bordered by South Gate, Compton and the Watts area of Los Angeles. It is a working-class community of modest single-family homes and apartments, crossed by the Century Freeway, and it is policed under contract by the Sheriff's Department from its Century Station. A house party on a residential street means that many people were nearby, and some of them may have seen the argument, the car or the moment Ivan was struck.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No conviction connected to the death of Ivan Torres could be found in news archives or public records. More than 13 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was at the party on Linden Street on the night of October 27 and 28, 2012, or who knows who was in the car, 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 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
