Randall James Prudhomme was 56 years old when he died on Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, in Historic South-Central Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 4170 S. Broadway St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Newton Area case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded only the basic facts of his death: his name, his age, the date, the address and the cause. It did not publish a story about the case, a quote from a detective or any description of what happened on Broadway that day.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Randall James Prudhomme 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.
Prudhomme is not a common surname, which might be expected to make him easier to trace, but the search results do not lead back to him. Other men named Randall Prudhomme appear in the record, including a member of an American Legion honor guard who was still active years after 2011 and a man listed in a Michigan family obituary. People-search websites list several people by the name in Los Angeles, but none of those listings can be confirmed as belonging to the man who died on Broadway, and they reveal nothing about his life.
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.
Historic South-Central is one of the oldest parts of South Los Angeles, lying just south of downtown. It is a dense, largely working-class district of older homes and apartment buildings, small shops and light industry, and it has long been a first home for families arriving in the city. Broadway runs north and south through the neighborhood, lined with storefronts, churches and small businesses, and the area falls under the LAPD's Newton Division, one of the department's oldest stations.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Randall James Prudhomme could be found in news archives or public records. More than 14 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived, worked or spent time near the 4100 block of South Broadway in October 2011, or who knew a 56-year-old man named Randall who stopped being seen around that time, may hold information that could help detectives understand what happened to him. 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.
