Ausage Sauta was 46 years old when he died on Saturday, October 2, 2021, in North Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds after being stabbed near East Harding Street and Linden Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
According to Long Beach police, officers were called at about 2:10 p.m. that Saturday to the area of Linden Avenue and Harding Street. When they arrived, several people were already trying to help a man with an apparent stab wound to the upper body, near a grassy area behind an apartment complex. Officers performed CPR until Long Beach Fire Department paramedics arrived, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said Sauta was experiencing homelessness.
Brandon Fahey, a spokesperson for the department, told the Press-Telegram that Sauta approached a man who was seated beneath a tree in the area, and that a physical altercation followed and escalated to a stabbing. According to City News Service, detectives learned that the encounter took place near the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Harding Street. Both men were believed to be homeless in the area, and police said they believed the two "knew each other." The suspect fled. Police described him as a thin, middle-aged man who was last seen walking north on Atlantic Avenue. A motive for the stabbing remained under investigation, CBS Los Angeles reported, and the case was assigned to homicide detectives Ethan Shear and Michael Hutchinson.
Beyond those reports, almost nothing about his life has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story. He surely had family or friends, perhaps among the people who tried to save him that afternoon, who remember who he was.
North Long Beach is the northern part of the city of Long Beach, a mostly residential area of single-family homes and apartment buildings near the cities of Compton and Paramount. Atlantic Avenue is one of its main north-south streets, lined with shops, restaurants and small businesses. The stabbing happened in the middle of a Saturday afternoon in a populated area, and police said several people were at the scene, which means that others may have seen the fight or the man who walked away from it.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Ausage Sauta could be found in news archives or public records. More than four years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Ausage Sauta, who knew the people living outdoors around Atlantic Avenue and Harding Street in the fall of 2021, or who was nearby on the afternoon of October 2, 2021, may hold information 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 contact the Long Beach Police Department's Homicide Detail at 562-570-7244, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
