Larrington Anthony Riley was 40 years old when he died on Tuesday, November 16, 2004, in Hyde Park. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 5346 4th Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department 77th Street Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 40-year-old black male" who "died Tuesday, Nov. 16, after being stabbed in Hyde Park." The entry gave a street address on 4th Avenue, but it did not say whether that was his home, the home of someone he knew or simply the place where he was found. No follow-up story about his death appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Larrington Anthony Riley 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. Larrington is a rare first name, rare enough that a search for it should stand out, yet searches turned up no record of him at all: no school listing, no social media page and no mention in any newspaper beyond the coroner's entry.
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.
Hyde Park is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles. It is made up largely of residential streets of older bungalows and small apartment buildings, and for decades it has been home to many Black working and middle-class families. Crenshaw Boulevard, Slauson Avenue and Florence Avenue are among the main streets in the area, lined with churches, small businesses and shops. The neighborhood is patrolled by the LAPD's 77th Street Division, whose detectives have carried a heavy share of the city's homicide cases for decades.
He was 40, an age when many people are in the middle of their working lives, supporting children or helping aging parents. Whoever stabbed him took those years away a week before Thanksgiving, and the people who knew him were left without answers.
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 Larrington Anthony Riley could be found in news archives or public records. More than 21 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 40-year-old man named Larrington Anthony Riley, or who lived, worked or spent time on or near 4th Avenue in Hyde Park in November 2004, 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).
