Raymond Gray was 43 years old when he died early on Sunday, May 13, 2007, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds suffered near 8th and South Main streets. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report said that Gray, "a black man, was stabbed multiple times in a pitch-black alley called Werdin Place near 8th Street and Main Street in downtown Los Angeles. He was taken to USC Medical Center, where he died at 1:40 a.m. Sunday, May 13." It went on: "He was a transient on parole with some history of drug charges, a can collector, according to police. His assailants might have been a group of Latino men, they said."
Those few lines are the only public account of his death.
They describe a man who lived on the streets and collected cans, which suggests that he may have spent his nights moving through the alleys and side streets of downtown, where recyclable bottles and cans are easiest to find. Police believed that more than one person may have attacked him, but the report does not say what led to the attack, whether anything was taken from him, or whether anyone saw it happen. It does not say who found him or called for help. The alley itself, which the Times described as pitch-black, would have hidden much of what happened from anyone passing on the larger streets nearby.
Beyond those details, almost nothing about Raymond Gray has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found, and no news outlet appears to have followed up on the case. Raymond Gray is also a shared name, carried by a Baltimore police trainee who was shot in a training accident, a Michigan man who spent decades in prison, a Los Angeles plumbing company owner and others, none of whom can be tied to this death. He surely had family, friends or others on the street who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
The corner of 8th and Main streets lies at the southern end of downtown's historic core, an area of older office and commercial buildings, garment and wholesale businesses and, by 2007, a growing number of converted lofts. Skid Row, where thousands of homeless people live in shelters, single-room hotels and on the sidewalks, lies a short distance to the east. He was taken to the county's main public hospital, the large trauma center east of downtown, where he died.
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 Raymond Gray could be found in news archives or public records. More than 18 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 43-year-old man named Raymond Gray who collected cans downtown, or who was near Werdin Place or 8th and Main streets late on the night of May 12, 2007, 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).
