Richard Alan Long was 57 years old when he died on Sunday, July 9, 2006, in Pomona, at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 987 E. Holt Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Pomona Police Department.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded only that Long, "a 57-year-old white male," died "after being stabbed in Pomona," according to the coroner's records. A list of Pomona homicide victims from 2003 to 2020, kept by a community group called Take Back Pomona, includes him with the same details: "Richard Alan Long 57 07/09/06 987 E. Holt Avenue Stabbed." Beyond those few lines, no news story about his death could be found.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Richard Alan Long 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.
Richard Long is a very common name, and searches for it lead to a British sculptor, an IBM database author, a pub manager in England, a man arrested in West Virginia and hundreds of obituaries for men who died in other places. None of them can be tied to the man who died on Holt Avenue, and none were used for this story.
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.
The address is a street number on a busy road, which suggests he was hurt at or near a business or building along Holt Avenue, but the record does not say what stood there or whether he had any connection to the place.
Pomona is one of the older cities of the eastern San Gabriel Valley, east of downtown Los Angeles, near the San Bernardino County line. It is home to the Fairplex, where the Los Angeles County Fair is held, and to Cal Poly Pomona. Holt Avenue is one of the city's main east-west commercial streets, with shops, small businesses and traffic at all hours.
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 Richard Alan Long could be found in news archives or public records. More than 19 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near the 900 block of East Holt Avenue in Pomona in early July 2006, or who knew a 57-year-old man named Richard Long, 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 Pomona Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
