Francisco Barrera was 46 years old when he died on Friday, June 20, 2008, in Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at Wilshire Boulevard and Shatto Place in Koreatown. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described what happened to him in a single line. "Francisco Barrera, 46, a Latino man, was hit in the head with a baseball bat and died in Hollywood," the Times wrote. "His time of death was listed as 12:46 p.m. Friday, June 20." His name appeared at the very end of a weekly listing of homicide victims in Los Angeles County, and the entry did not name a detective or describe a suspect.
The record is not fully consistent about where he died. The entry's text says Hollywood, the listed location is an intersection on Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown, and the agency field names a North Hollywood unit of the LAPD. The intersection may be where he was attacked, and Hollywood may refer to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, but the record does not explain the difference, and it is possible that one of the details was entered in error.
The use of a baseball bat suggests that whoever attacked him was armed, and that the blow was struck at close range, but nothing in the record says whether he knew the person who hit him or why it happened.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Francisco Barrera 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. Francisco Barrera is a very common name, shared by artists, scholars, athletes and many other men in California, Texas and beyond, and none of the people turned up by searches could be tied to the man who died in June 2008.
Wilshire Boulevard is one of the best-known streets in Los Angeles, running from downtown to the ocean in Santa Monica. Just west of downtown it passes through Koreatown, one of the most densely populated parts of the city, lined with office towers, apartment buildings, restaurants and shops. The neighborhood is busy at all hours, and it has long been home to Korean American and Latino families, among many others, living in older apartment buildings on the side streets.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved. Many of those deaths, like this one, drew only a line or two in the public record.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Francisco Barrera could be found in news archives or public records. More than 17 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Wilshire Boulevard and Shatto Place, or who heard about a man being struck with a baseball bat in that part of the city in June 2008, may know something that could help. 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.
