Dolores Rodriguez was 35 years old when he died on Monday, November 15, 2010, in Florence-Firestone, an unincorporated community in South Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near Nadeau Street and Bell Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
He was a Latino man in his mid-30s. According to the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, he "suffered a blow minutes before 1 a.m. on Nov. 14," based on a Sheriff's Department news release. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead the next day. According to coroner's records, he sustained head trauma "and was possibly struck with a baseball bat."
That is nearly all that has been released. The Sheriff's Department had no additional information about the case at the time, and the Times said it had contacted investigators, but no later update appears in the record. The report does not say whether he was attacked by one person or several, whether there was an argument first, whether he knew his attacker, or whether anything was taken. The hour of the attack and its location at a street corner suggest he may have been outdoors, possibly walking or standing near the intersection, when he was hit, but that is only an inference.
Beyond those details, almost nothing about him has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story. Although Dolores is usually a woman's name, the Times record and the sheriff's account both describe him as a man. Rodriguez is one of the most common surnames in the country, and searches for the name turned up many other people, among them a woman in Tucson convicted in an unrelated killing, a nun, a university staff member and dozens of women remembered in obituaries. None of them is the man who died in Florence-Firestone.
Florence-Firestone lies between the city of Los Angeles and the cities of Huntington Park, South Gate and Lynwood. Because it is unincorporated, it has no city government or police department of its own, and the Sheriff's Department patrols it. It is one of the most densely populated parts of the county, with small houses, apartments and corner businesses packed onto a tight street grid, and many of the families who live there have been in the area for generations.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Dolores Rodriguez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Nadeau Street and Bell Avenue in Florence-Firestone shortly before 1 a.m. on November 14, 2010, who saw a man with a bat or heard about a fight that night, 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.
