Sixto Garcia was 21 years old when he died on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near 318 W. Pico Blvd. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Central Bureau Homicide case.
The coroner's record describes him as a young Latino man. CBS Los Angeles, drawing on information from the LAPD and City News Service, reported that police found him behind the 1200 block of South Grand Avenue, near Pico Boulevard, at 9:15 p.m. that Friday. "According to police, Garcia was in an alleyway talking to a friend," the station reported. "Shortly after, a car then drove up to the pair, someone got out of the vehicle and stabbed the man multiple times, investigators said." When paramedics arrived, he had already died.
"A description of the suspect was not available," the report said.
The station noted that the attack happened in the vicinity of a high-rise residential tower, Olive DTLA, about two blocks from what was then Staples Center. The account suggests an attack that came quickly and without warning, by someone who arrived by car and may have left the same way, although police did not say publicly whether the attacker drove off or whether the victim was targeted.
His family remembered him in an online fundraiser titled "Long Live Sixto!" "On October 2, 2020 we tragically lost our beloved Sixto Garcia at the young age of 21," it began. "Sixto leaves behind his parents, brother," the fundraiser said, in a passage that went on to name others who loved him. Beyond that, little about his life has been made public.
His name is shared with many other men, including a Houston man of the same name who was shot to death a day earlier, on Oct. 1, 2020, in a case where a suspect was charged. That case has no connection to the stabbing in downtown Los Angeles, but it shows how easily records about the two men could be confused.
The area around Pico Boulevard and Grand Avenue lies at the southern edge of downtown, near the convention center and the arena district. In recent years it has filled with tall apartment towers, but it still holds older buildings, parking lots and narrow service alleys behind the main streets. In October 2020 the arena district was far quieter than usual, because the COVID-19 pandemic had shut out crowds from games and concerts.
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 Sixto Garcia 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. The friend who was with him in the alley, anyone who lived in the towers nearby, and anyone who saw a car stop near Grand Avenue and Pico Boulevard on the night of Oct. 2, 2020, 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.
