Julio Figueroa Gomez was 59 years old when he died on Tuesday, October 7, 2003, in Watts, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 1308 E. 115th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the department's Southeast Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report gave only the most basic facts. It described him as "a 59-year-old Latino male" who "died Tuesday, Oct. 7, after sustaining blunt force trauma in Watts, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records."
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Julio Figueroa Gomez 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. His name combines two common surnames, and searches for it turn up many other men, among them a corporate lawyer in Spain listed in business registries under a longer version of the name, people named in government notices in Colombia, and men named Julio Gomez memorialized in obituaries in other states. None of them can be tied to the man who died on 115th Street.
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.
The address given in the record is a street number on a residential block, which suggests that he may have been at a home, an apartment or a yard when he was injured, though the record does not say whether he lived there, was visiting or was passing by.
Watts is one of the best known neighborhoods in Los Angeles. It is home to the Watts Towers, the soaring folk-art sculptures built by Simon Rodia over more than three decades, and to several large public housing developments, including Jordan Downs, Nickerson Gardens and Imperial Courts. For generations it was a mostly Black community, and by the early 2000s many Latino families had also settled on its streets of small houses and duplexes.
Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Julio Figueroa Gomez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 22 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived or worked near the 1300 block of East 115th Street in Watts in early October 2003, or who knew Julio Figueroa Gomez and saw him in the days before he died, 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
