Joseph Gilbert was 28 years old when he died on Friday, Nov. 25, 2011, in the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw area of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 4046 Abourne Road. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Criminal Gang Homicide case.
The coroner's record describes him as a Black man. The little that is known about how he died comes from Ed Winter, then a spokesman for the coroner's office, who spoke to the Los Angeles Times. Gilbert "was at a party about midnight when he was involved in a verbal altercation and stabbed," Winter said. Paramedics were called, and he was taken to a hospital in Lynwood, where he was pronounced dead at 3:55 a.m. Winter had no other information about the case. An early version of the Times post said that Gilbert had been shot, and the paper later corrected it to say that he was stabbed.
The calendar adds one detail. Nov.
24, 2011, was Thanksgiving Day, so the party where Gilbert was hurt was going on around midnight at the end of the holiday, which suggests that many of the people there may have been family members, friends or neighbors gathered for the occasion. The record does not say who hosted the party, how many people attended, what the argument was about, or whether Gilbert knew the person who stabbed him. It also does not say whether anyone was detained, whether a weapon was found, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Beyond those few lines, almost nothing about Joseph Gilbert has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no other news outlet appears to have reported on his death. His name is a common one, and searches turned up only other men named Joseph Gilbert, none of whom is the man who died after the party on Abourne Road. He surely had family and friends who remember him, but none of that has entered the public record.
Baldwin Hills and the Crenshaw district have long been among the best known centers of Black life in Los Angeles. The area takes in hillside streets of well-kept homes as well as the busy Crenshaw Boulevard corridor, with its churches, shops and restaurants, and it lies close to Leimert Park and the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. Many families there have lived in the same houses for decades, and holiday gatherings that draw relatives from across the city are a familiar part of neighborhood life.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Joseph Gilbert could be found in news archives or public records. More than 14 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who attended the party in the 4000 block of Abourne Road on the night after Thanksgiving in November 2011, who saw the argument or who heard later talk about who was involved, 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. The Times asked anyone with details to contact the LAPD Criminal Gang and Homicide Division at 485-4341. 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.
