Steve Bernard Taylor was 55 years old when he died on Saturday, November 28, 2020, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near 527 S. Crocker St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Bureau Homicide unit.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him only as "a 55-year-old Black male" who "died Saturday, Nov. 28, after being stabbed near 527 S. Crocker St. in Downtown." That single sentence, drawn from coroner's records, is nearly all that has been made public about his death.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Steve Bernard Taylor 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 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.
Steve Taylor is a very common name. Searches turn up a Christian rock singer, a Riverside County sheriff's lieutenant who died of COVID-19 in 2022, a psychology lecturer in England, a man shot by a police officer in Northern California and dozens of obituaries for other men who carried it, none of whom can be connected to this death. That commonness has made it even harder for any trace of this particular man to surface in public records.
Crocker Street runs through Skid Row, the part of downtown Los Angeles east of the Historic Core where thousands of unhoused people live in tents, shelters and single-room-occupancy hotels. The area is home to missions and service agencies that hand out meals, beds and medical care, and its sidewalks are crowded at all hours. In a neighborhood like this, many people see one another every day without knowing each other's full names, and a man known to neighbors only by a first name or a nickname could die without his story ever being told.
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 Steve Bernard Taylor could be found in news archives or public records. More than five years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on or near Crocker Street in downtown Los Angeles in late November 2020, or who knew a 55-year-old man named Steve Taylor who spent time on Skid Row, 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.
