Ernesto Tovar was 21 years old when he died on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009, in South Gate. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at Long Beach Boulevard and Willow Place. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a South Gate Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described what the coroner's office knew. Tovar "was found lying in the street on Sept. 14 with blunt-force injuries," said Ed Winter, a spokesman for the coroner's office. He was taken to a hospital, "where he told doctors he was beaten with a baseball bat," Winter said. He died in the hospital at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 19. "No suspect information was available," the report said.
That account contains one detail that is rare in cases like this one: the victim himself was able to say how he was hurt. It does not say whether he was able to describe his attacker, whether he knew who had beaten him, or how many people were involved. It also does not say what time he was found on Sept. 14, who called for help, or what brought him to that corner. He survived for several days after the attack, which suggests investigators may have had a chance to speak with him, but nothing about any statement he gave to police has been made public.
Beyond those details, almost nothing about Ernesto Tovar has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser that can be confirmed as his could be found for this story, and no other news outlet appears to have reported on the death. Ernesto Tovar is a fairly common name, and searches return many other men who share it, among them a professional musician and men in Riverside County, Texas and Arkansas. He surely had family and friends who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
South Gate is a city of about 90,000 people in southeast Los Angeles County, along the Los Angeles River. For decades it was an industrial town, home to a large General Motors assembly plant and a Firestone tire factory, and it remains largely a working-class community of single-family homes and small businesses. Long Beach Boulevard is one of its main commercial corridors, a busy street of shops, restaurants, auto businesses and bus stops that carries traffic through the city day and night.
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 Ernesto Tovar could be found in news archives or public records. More than 16 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Long Beach Boulevard and Willow Place in South Gate on Sept. 14, 2009, who saw a fight, a person carrying a baseball bat or a young man lying in the street, may hold information that matters. Friends who spoke with Tovar in the days before he died may also remember what he said. 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 South Gate Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
