Jose Alfredo Cruz was 30 years old when he died on Tuesday, January 17, 2006, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1724 E. 4th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 30-year-old Latino male" who "died Tuesday, Jan. 17, after being stabbed in Long Beach." That brief entry, drawn from coroner's records, is almost everything that has been made public about his death.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Jose Alfredo Cruz 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.
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.
Jose Cruz is one of the most common names in Southern California, and even the full name Jose Alfredo Cruz is shared by many men. Searches turn up federal defendants in Texas, West Virginia and New Mexico, and a different Jose Cruz who was wounded in a 1999 shooting outside a Long Beach taco stand, a case that later became part of a wrongful-conviction file. None of them can be connected to this death.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city on San Pedro Bay known for its harbor, the Queen Mary and its long stretch of beach. Fourth Street runs east from downtown through older neighborhoods of apartment buildings, bungalows and small businesses, and part of it is known for a strip of vintage shops, cafes and restaurants often called Retro Row. The blocks around East Fourth Street are densely built, with many residents living close together and many people walking the street, which means that someone may have seen or heard something on the day Jose Cruz was hurt.
Long Beach has its own police department, which is why the case belongs to the Long Beach Police Department's homicide detectives rather than to the county sheriff.
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 Jose Alfredo Cruz 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 on or near East Fourth Street in Long Beach in January 2006, or who knew Jose Alfredo Cruz and spent time with him in the days before his death, 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 Long Beach Police Department's Homicide Detail at 562-570-7244, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
