Limus Thomas White Jr. was 18 years old when he died on Saturday, March 28, 2009, in the Central-Alameda area of South Los Angeles. In the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, which draws on records of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, the cause of his death is listed as blunt force trauma, at Naomi Avenue and East 27th Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case, handled by the Newton Division.
The short text that the Times published about his death describes a shooting instead. It said that "Limus White Jr., an 18-year-old black man, died of gunshot wounds on Saturday, March 29, 2009, at Naomi Avenue and East 27th Street in South-Central, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office." March 29 was a Sunday that year, and the Homicide Report's own database gives the date as March 28. The public record does not explain why the written report describes gunshot wounds while the listed cause is blunt force. It may reflect an early error in one of the entries, or injuries of more than one kind, but that cannot be confirmed from what has been released.
Apart from that sentence, nothing about the circumstances has been made public. The Times did not say whether he was hurt on the street or inside a building, who called for help, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, or whether anyone else was with him.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Limus White Jr. has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no news outlet other than the Homicide Report appears to have reported on the death. His first name is an unusual one, which makes the silence all the more striking: searches for it turned up nothing beyond the Times entry. He was barely an adult, and he surely had parents, relatives, classmates or friends who remember who he was.
Central-Alameda is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles that takes its name from two of its main streets, Central Avenue and Alameda Street. Central Avenue was once the heart of Black Los Angeles and a center of jazz in the 1930s and 1940s. Today the area is a mix of small homes, apartment buildings and industrial blocks near the rail corridor along Alameda Street, and it is home to many Black and Latino working families.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved. The death of an 18-year-old at a South Los Angeles intersection was recorded in the Homicide Report with a single sentence.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Limus Thomas White Jr. 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 Naomi Avenue and East 27th Street in late March 2009, or who knew Limus and heard talk of what happened to him, may hold information that matters. 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.
