Kevin Deshawn Sparrow was 33 years old when he died on Friday, July 9, 2010, in the Florence neighborhood of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 138 W. 61st St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Newton Division.
Coroner's records describe him as a Black man. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence, saying that he "died Friday, July 9, after being stabbed in Florence, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records." No account of what happened was ever added to the entry. It did not say whether he was stabbed on the day he died or earlier, and it gave no quotes from detectives, family members or neighbors.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Kevin Deshawn Sparrow 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. His name is not especially common, but searches for Kevin Sparrow turn up only other men, among them a British artist who died in the 1970s, a university researcher and men whose obituaries appeared in Georgia, Maryland and Kentucky. None of them can be tied 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.
Florence is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles, a few miles south of downtown. Its streets are lined with modest single-family houses, small apartment buildings, churches, corner stores and auto shops. The neighborhood's main roads, including Florence Avenue, carry heavy traffic, while side streets like West 61st Street are mostly quiet and residential.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved.
A case that drew no news coverage at all could easily slip out of public view. Without a single published detail about the circumstances, the death of Kevin Deshawn Sparrow remains one of many in the city that the public knows almost nothing about.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Kevin Deshawn Sparrow could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 33-year-old man named Kevin Sparrow, or who was near West 61st Street in Florence in early July 2010, 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. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 (877-LAPD-24-7), or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
