Pablo Martinez Martinez was 40 years old when he died early on Tuesday, May 26, 2015, after being attacked at a bus stop in Panorama City, in the San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds suffered in the 9100 block of Van Nuys Boulevard, at Nordhoff Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled in the department's Mission Hills area.
At 10:50 p.m. on Monday, May 25, officers from the LAPD's Mission Area were sent to what the department called an "Ambulance Stabbing" at the bus stop. In a news release the next day, police said officers "discovered Pablo Martinez lying on the sidewalk and next to the bus stop" with "multiple stab wounds to the chest area." The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, citing coroner's records, said he had three stab wounds in his chest.
He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:57 a.m.
Witnesses told investigators they saw two Latino men, about 20 years old, running from the scene.
CBS Los Angeles reported that "before he died, Martinez was able to give police his name and age, but could not tell the officers who or why anyone would want to kill him." The station said he "appeared to be a day laborer," and that police had not yet found his family to tell them of his death. Officers canvassed the area for surveillance cameras that might have recorded the attackers. "We're not sure what the motive is or the reasoning behind the stabbing," LAPD Lt. Kathleen Burns told ABC7.
No obituary or memorial page for him could be found, and no later news story appears to have been published. Pablo Martinez is a very common name, and searches turn up many other men who share it, none of whom can be connected to this death. That police struggled at first to reach his relatives suggests his family may have lived far away, perhaps outside the country, though the record does not say so.
Panorama City is a busy, working-class neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley. It was laid out as a planned community in the years after World War II, and Van Nuys Boulevard, one of the Valley's main commercial streets, runs through its center, lined with shops, restaurants, apartment buildings and heavily used bus stops. The area is patrolled by the LAPD's Mission Division.
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 Pablo Martinez Martinez could be found in news archives or public records. More than ten years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Van Nuys Boulevard and Nordhoff Street on the night of May 25, 2015, or who knew a 40-year-old man named Pablo Martinez who may have worked as a day laborer, may hold information that could help. The Times asked that tips go to the LAPD's Mission Division homicide unit at 838-9810. 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.
