Ramiro Hernandez was 18 years old when he died on Saturday, June 17, 2006, in Pacoima, in the northeast San Fernando Valley. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at Filmore Street and Amboy Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Foothill Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 18-year-old Latino male" who "died Saturday, June 17, after being stabbed in Pacoima." The entry gave a street corner rather than a house number, which suggests he may have been attacked outdoors, on or near the street. The record does not say what time it happened or whether he was alone. No follow-up story appears to have been written.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Ramiro Hernandez 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. Ramiro Hernandez is a common name, and searches turn up many other men who share it, including a painter who lives in Los Angeles, a teenager charged in an unrelated killing in Houston and a man executed in Texas for a crime committed there. None of them can be connected 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.
He was only 18, barely an adult, and he may still have been in school or just finishing it. Whatever his story was, it has never been told in public.
Pacoima is one of the oldest communities in the San Fernando Valley, lying in its northeast corner. It is a working-class neighborhood of small single-family homes, many of them built after World War II, along with apartment buildings and small businesses. It is home to Whiteman Airport, a small general-aviation field, and it is remembered as the hometown of the rock and roll singer Ritchie Valens. For decades it has been a largely Latino community with deep family roots. The area is patrolled by the LAPD's Foothill Division.
Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Ramiro Hernandez 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 Filmore Street and Amboy Avenue in Pacoima in June 2006, or who knew an 18-year-old named Ramiro Hernandez from the neighborhood, 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).
