Ricky Hernandez Camacho was 53 years old when he died on Thursday, August 18, 2011, in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near 59th Place and San Pedro Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as an LAPD Newton Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report listed him as a Latino man and placed his death in Florence. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Ricky Hernandez Camacho 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. Ricky Camacho is a fairly common name, and searches mostly turn up other men, including a restaurant chef in New York, a church literature worker and men whose obituaries were published in other states, none of whom had any known connection to South Los Angeles.
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 coroner's record places the death at an intersection rather than at a specific address, which suggests he may have been hurt on or near the street rather than inside a home. That is an inference only. The record does not say whether he lived nearby, whether he was found there or taken to a hospital from there, or whether anyone called for help.
The area around 59th Place and San Pedro Street is part of the dense South Los Angeles grid of small houses, apartments, churches, corner markets and auto shops that stretches south from downtown. San Pedro Street is a long north-south road that carries buses and steady traffic through the neighborhood. The area falls within the LAPD's Newton Division, which covers a wide band of South and Southeast Los Angeles. On streets like these, neighbors often know one another by sight, and residents who were outside in mid-August 2011 may have seen or heard something that seemed minor at the time.
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 Ricky Hernandez Camacho 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 knew Ricky Camacho, or who was near 59th Place and San Pedro Street in mid-August 2011, 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
