Eshagh Natanzadeh was 61 years old, according to the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, when he died on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, in downtown Los Angeles; the coroner's office and other news reports gave his age as 62. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in a jewelry shop in the 700 block of South Broadway. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case.
Shortly before 9:30 a.m., a neighbor reported broken glass at the shop, along with a mistaken report that someone had been shot. "It's a homicide, but what led up to all of that, I have no idea," LAPD Officer Drake Madison told the Times that morning. Natanzadeh, who lived in Beverly Hills, died at the scene.
A fellow jeweler, Sharyar Soleymani, told The Forward that Natanzadeh and his brother, Habib, had come in early to set up the store. Habib told his brother to lock the door and went to the bank.
"When Habib came back to the store," Soleymani said, "he found the door unlocked and his brother laying down on the floor in a pool of blood." He said no jewelry was stolen and that the suspect was "likely a customer or someone who knew him."
Weeks later, the LAPD released surveillance images of a suspect. Police said the man was inside the store for about six minutes, stabbed Natanzadeh several times and left on foot carrying a white grocery bag, heading east on Seventh Street and then north on Spring Street. He was described as a Hispanic man 30 to 40 years old, about 5 feet 6 to 5 feet 8 inches tall and 160 to 180 pounds. The Jewelers' Security Alliance offered a reward of up to $2,500.
Natanzadeh was a member of Southern California's Iranian Jewish community, which was shaken by his death. A family friend started a GoFundMe page that raised more than $60,000. The Forward reported that the family had already suffered a loss in 2011, when his teenage daughter collapsed at Beverly Hills High School and died. "I've been hearing nothing but 'your dad was the nicest man I knew, your dad was such a kind soul,'" his son, Omid, wrote on Facebook, adding that "nothing will ever be the same."
The store stood in the Jewelry District, a dense cluster of wholesale and retail jewelers around Seventh Street and Broadway, next to the historic theaters of the Broadway corridor. In 2020 the area was struggling with the pandemic and with damage from looting earlier that year.
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 Eshagh Natanzadeh 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 near Seventh Street and Broadway on the morning of November 3, 2020, or who recognizes the man in the LAPD images, may hold information that could help. Central Bureau Homicide detectives can be reached at 213-996-4149. 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.
