Nicholas Dayshawn Randolph

Nicholas Dayshawn Randolph was 30 years old when he died on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, in Harbor Gateway, a neighborhood in the southern part of the city of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near 13210 S. Vermont Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's South Bureau Homicide unit.

The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single entry drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 30-year-old Black male" who "died Tuesday, June 15, after being stabbed near 13210 S. Vermont Avenue in Harbor Gateway." The entry did not say whether the address was a home, a business or the spot where he was found. No news story about the killing could be found, and no detective's statement about the case appears in the public record gathered for this story.

Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Nicholas Dayshawn Randolph 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 full name, with the middle name Dayshawn, is distinctive, while Nicholas Randolph alone is shared by many people across the country. None of the namesakes found in searches can be connected to his death.

Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone he knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. 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.

Harbor Gateway is an unusual part of Los Angeles. It is a long, narrow strip of city land, only a few blocks wide in places, that runs south from the rest of South Los Angeles and connects the city to San Pedro and the Port of Los Angeles. Many people who drive through it do not realize they are still inside the city of Los Angeles. Vermont Avenue is one of the longest streets in the region, and along this stretch it passes apartment buildings, small homes, shopping centers, motels and fast-food restaurants.

Los Angeles recorded about 260 homicides a year in 2018 and 2019, among the lowest yearly totals in more than half a century, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.

No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Nicholas Dayshawn Randolph 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 Nicholas Randolph, or who was on or near the 13200 block of South Vermont Avenue in Harbor Gateway in mid-June 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.