Darryl E. Gates was 56 years old when he died on Sunday, Dec. 23, 2007, two days before Christmas, in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at a location that was never made public. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th Street Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single line: Darryl E. Gates, "a 56-year-old black male," died that Sunday "after sustaining blunt force trauma." The entry gave no street, no account of what happened and no detective's name, and no follow-up appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Darryl E. Gates 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.
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.
His name makes him unusually hard to find. Daryl F. Gates, spelled with one "r," was the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1978 to 1992, and searches for the name return page after page about the former chief, the 1992 unrest and the debates over his time in office. None of those records is connected to the 56-year-old man who died in South Los Angeles in December 2007, and the flood of results about the chief has likely buried whatever trace of his own life once existed online.
The 77th Street Division covers a large part of South Los Angeles, including neighborhoods along Vermont Avenue, Western Avenue, Manchester Avenue and Florence Avenue. It is a working-class area of single-family homes, small apartment buildings, churches and corner businesses, home to long-established Black families and a growing Latino population. Because the Times entry gave no address, it is not known which of those neighborhoods he lived in or where he was hurt.
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 Darryl E. Gates could be found in news archives or public records. More than 18 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone who lived in South Los Angeles in the days before Christmas 2007 may remember a 56-year-old man named Darryl who was hurt or killed that week, or may know who he was and who he spent his time with. Relatives, neighbors and church members may also hold details that were never made public. 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.
