Samuel Crenshaw was 60 years old when he died on Sunday, March 24, 2019, in the Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near Bradley and Paxton streets. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Bureau Homicide unit.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him only as "a 60-year-old Black male" who "died Sunday, March 24, after being stabbed near Bradley & Paxton streets in Pacoima." That entry, 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 Samuel Crenshaw 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.
Samuel Crenshaw is not a rare name. Searches turn up a television journalist in Atlanta, men named in court cases in Georgia and Alabama, and obituaries for older men in Virginia, Texas and Ohio, none of whom can be connected to this death in Pacoima. That commonness has made it harder for any trace of this particular man to surface in public records. At 60, he had lived a long life before he was killed, and he may have had children, siblings, old friends or coworkers who could still describe who he was and how he came to be at that corner. The location given, an intersection rather than a house number, suggests that he may have been hurt on or near the street, though the record does not say so.
Pacoima is a neighborhood in the northeast San Fernando Valley, one of the oldest communities in the Valley. It is largely residential, with blocks of small single-family homes, apartment buildings, churches and family-run businesses, and it is home to Whiteman Airport. Paxton Street is one of its main roads, and Bradley Avenue crosses it in a residential stretch.
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 Samuel Crenshaw could be found in news archives or public records. More than six years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on or near Bradley Avenue and Paxton Street in Pacoima in March 2019, or who knew a 60-year-old man named Samuel Crenshaw who spent time in the neighborhood, 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.
