Antwon Anthony Cooper was 48 years old when he died on Tuesday, October 1, 2002, in the Westlake neighborhood west of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 630 S. Alvarado St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the department's Rampart Division.
He was a Black man in his late 40s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Antwon Anthony Cooper 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. Searches for his name turned up only other men called Antwon Cooper, including a man in Florida, none of whom had any known connection to Los Angeles in 2002.
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 record gives a street address on Alvarado Street, one of the busiest streets in the neighborhood, which may mean he was hurt on or near the sidewalk, but even that is not certain.
At 48, he was older than most people whose names appear in the Homicide Report. Whether he lived in Westlake, worked there or was passing through, and whether he knew the person who hurt him, have never been made public.
Westlake is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Its heart is MacArthur Park, the lake and green space on Wilshire Boulevard, and Alvarado Street, which runs past the park, is lined with discount stores, street vendors, small restaurants and older apartment buildings. For decades it has been a first home in Los Angeles for immigrants from Central America and Mexico. In the years around 2002 the area around the park also had a reputation for open drug dealing, and the Rampart Division that served it was still recovering from the corruption scandal that had broken a few years earlier.
Homicides in Los Angeles rose sharply in the early 2000s, climbing past 600 in 2002, and detectives carried heavy caseloads. Many killings from those years were never solved. The death of a 48-year-old man on one of the busiest streets in Westlake does not appear to have been reported by any news outlet.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Antwon Anthony Cooper could be found in news archives or public records. More than 23 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near the 600 block of South Alvarado Street in early October 2002, or who knew him, 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.
