Aaron Holloway was 40 years old when he died on Tuesday, June 8, 2004, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 458 S. Broadway. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case, assigned to the Central Division.
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, June 8, after being stabbed in Downtown." The entry gave an address on Broadway, but it did not say whether that was where he was attacked, where he was found or simply where he was pronounced dead. 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 Aaron Holloway 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. Aaron Holloway is not a rare name, and searches are crowded with other men who share it, including a man shot to death at an Atlanta recording studio in 2010, a Houston man accused in a sword attack, lawyers, athletes and men whose obituaries ran in other states. 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.
South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles is one of the city's oldest commercial streets. Its historic stretch is lined with grand movie palaces and office buildings from the early 20th century, many of them later filled with discount stores, jewelry and electronics shops and street vendors serving a largely working-class crowd. In 2004 the street was busy by day and much quieter at night, and the blocks of downtown to the east, toward Skid Row, held one of the largest concentrations of homeless people in the country. The area is patrolled by the LAPD's Central 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 Aaron Holloway 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 Aaron Holloway in downtown Los Angeles, or who was on or near the 400 block of South Broadway in early June 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).
