Osmin Wilfredo Campos Serna was 21 years old when he was killed on the evening of Friday, April 25, 2014, in the Vermont Square neighborhood of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 4000 block of South Vermont Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Criminal Gang Homicide Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described a sudden attack on a busy street, citing Los Angeles police Det. Sal LaBarbera. "Campos Serna was walking out of a liquor store about 9 p.m. when he was confronted by two to five Latinos between the ages of 15 and 20 years old," the Times wrote. "One of the attackers grabbed Campos Serna's skateboard and hit him several times," LaBarbera said. Campos Serna was then stabbed in the upper torso by one of the attackers, and the group ran north on South Vermont Avenue.
He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:25 p.m., according to coroner's records.
The account suggests that the attackers were very young, some of them perhaps still in their teens, and that they were on foot. It does not say whether anything was said before the attack, whether they demanded anything from him, or whether he knew any of them. The detail that one of them seized his own skateboard and used it against him suggests a confrontation that turned violent within seconds. At 9 p.m. on a Friday, clerks, customers and passing drivers may have seen part of what happened.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Osmin Wilfredo Campos Serna has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no news outlet other than the Times appears to have reported on his death. He surely had family and friends who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record. His full name is distinctive, which means people who knew him would likely recognize it.
Vermont Square is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles, south of Exposition Park and the University of Southern California, made up largely of older single-family homes and small apartment buildings. Vermont Avenue, one of the city's longest north-south streets, runs through it as a commercial corridor of small shops, markets and liquor stores. The neighborhood is home to one of the oldest branch libraries in Los Angeles.
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 Osmin Wilfredo Campos Serna could be found in news archives or public records. More than 11 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on South Vermont Avenue near the 4000 block around 9 p.m. on April 25, 2014, or who saw a group of young men running north on Vermont that night, 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. The Times asked anyone with information to call the Criminal Gang Homicide Division at 485-1383. 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.
