Claude Harvey Young was 70 years old when he died on Tuesday, July 28, 2020, in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, just west of downtown. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after being stabbed near 208 S. Bonnie Brae 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 recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 70-year-old Black male" who "died Tuesday, July 28, after being stabbed near 208 S. Bonnie Brae St. in Westlake." The entry gave a street address, but it did not say whether that was his home, the home of someone he knew or simply the place where he was found. No follow-up story appears to have been written about his death.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Claude Harvey Young 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. Claude Young is a fairly common name, and searches turn up many other men who share it, including a well-known techno musician and older men in Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois and New Hampshire whose obituaries appear online. None of them can be connected to this 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.
Westlake is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles. It lies just west of downtown and is centered on MacArthur Park, a historic park with a lake that has long served as a gathering place for the neighborhood. Bonnie Brae Street is a mostly residential street lined with apartment buildings and some older homes from the early twentieth century. Today Westlake is home to many working families and immigrants, and it has long struggled with poverty, overcrowding, homelessness and street crime.
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 Claude Harvey Young 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 knew a 70-year-old man named Claude Harvey Young, or who lived on or near the 200 block of South Bonnie Brae Street in Westlake in July 2020, 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.
