Leon Irvin Johnson was 39 years old when he died on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2005, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 222 Linden Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
The coroner's record describes him as a Black man in his late 30s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Leon Irvin Johnson 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.
Leon Johnson is a common name, and searches turned up only other men who carried it: men whose obituaries were published in Kansas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Mississippi and other states, a man named in a court case in Florida, and an older man from Delaware who died decades earlier. None of them is the man who died in Long Beach, and his middle name, Irvin, appears in no record other than the Homicide Report listing.
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 coroner gave a specific street address on Linden Avenue. That may mean he was found at or near a building at that address, but the record does not say whether he lived there, was visiting, or was found outside on the street. Nothing has been published about his family, his work or how long he had lived in Long Beach.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city of about 460,000 people on San Pedro Bay. It is home to one of the busiest container ports in the country, the Queen Mary, the Aquarium of the Pacific and California State University, Long Beach. Its older central neighborhoods are dense with apartment buildings, small businesses and older homes, and they are among the most diverse in the region. Long Beach has its own police department, whose homicide detectives investigate killings inside the city.
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 Leon Irvin Johnson could be found in news archives or public records. More than 20 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near Linden Avenue in Long Beach in February 2005, who knew Leon or the people he spent time with, or who heard talk afterward about what happened to him that Wednesday, may hold information that could help detectives. 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).
