Hector Galaviz-Avila was 39 years old when he died on Saturday, September 6, 2008, in Lennox, an unincorporated community in southwest Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 11100 Hawthorne Blvd. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "39, a Latino man," who "was stabbed to death at Hawthorne Boulevard next to the 105 Freeway off-ramp in Lennox about 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6." According to the entry, deputies from the sheriff's Lennox Station "responded to a call of a man down." When they arrived, deputies saw that the man, later identified as Galaviz-Avila, "was lying on the ground; he had been stabbed multiple times."
He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
Those few lines describe a killing in broad daylight, at two in the afternoon on a Saturday, beside a freeway off-ramp on one of the busiest streets in the area. Drivers leaving the freeway, people waiting at nearby bus stops and customers of businesses along Hawthorne Boulevard may all have been close enough to see something. The call that brought deputies was for a man down, which suggests that whoever called may have found him after the attack rather than watching it happen. The record does not say whether he was walking, waiting or working there, whether he lived in Lennox, or whether he knew the person who stabbed him.
Beyond those details, almost nothing about Hector Galaviz-Avila has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no follow-up news report appears to have been written. He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record. His hyphenated name is uncommon, and searches turned up no other record of him at all.
The record also does not say whether investigators found the knife, whether anyone was seen running from the area, or whether detectives ever identified a suspect.
Lennox is a small, densely populated unincorporated community just east of Los Angeles International Airport, bordered by the cities of Inglewood and Hawthorne. Planes approaching the airport pass low overhead, and the Glenn Anderson Freeway, Interstate 105, runs along its southern edge. Because it is unincorporated, it is policed by the Sheriff's Department's Lennox Station. Hawthorne Boulevard is its main commercial street, lined with small shops, restaurants and markets, and it carries heavy traffic to and from the freeway.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Hector Galaviz-Avila could be found in news archives or public records. More than 17 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on Hawthorne Boulevard near the 105 Freeway off-ramp in Lennox on the afternoon of September 6, 2008, or who knew Hector Galaviz-Avila and where he spent his days, 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 contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
