Alex Denzel Horowitz was 23 years old when he died on Wednesday, July 5, 2017, in Historic South-Central Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 157 E. 36th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Newton Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 23-year-old black male" who "died Wednesday, July 5, after being stabbed in Historic South-Central." No follow-up story appears to have been written, and no details about the circumstances were released.
A brief listing on an Inland Empire memorial obituary blog adds his dates of birth and death. It reads simply "Alex Denzel Horowitz July 9, 1993 - July 4, 2017." The listing matches his full name and his age, and it means he died only days before what would have been his 24th birthday.
The one-day difference from the coroner's date may mean he was hurt late on July 4, Independence Day, and died after midnight, although the record does not say so. A social media post that reads "RIP Alex Denzel Horowitz" suggests that he was mourned by people who knew him, and a public profile under his name lists him as living in Los Angeles. No full obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found, and no news outlet appears to have reported on the death.
His name is unusual, which makes the scarcity of public information more striking. Searches for Alex Horowitz turn up a housing researcher, a filmmaker and several other men in other states, none of whom has any connection 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.
Historic South-Central is one of the oldest parts of South Los Angeles, lying just south of downtown. It is a crowded area of older houses, apartment buildings, small factories and corner businesses, and it has long been one of the city's working-class neighborhoods, home to generations of Black and Latino families.
By the mid-2010s Los Angeles was recording roughly 250 to 300 homicides a year, among the lowest totals in decades, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Alex Denzel Horowitz could be found in news archives or public records. More than eight years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 23-year-old man named Alex Horowitz, or who was near the 100 block of East 36th Street around the Fourth of July holiday in 2017, may hold information that could help. Friends who saw him in his last days may know where he had been and who he was with. 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.
