Dwhight Gary Davidson was 19 years old when he died on Thursday, March 18, 2004, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 3635 Atlantic Ave. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Long Beach Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 19-year-old black male" who "died Thursday, March 18, after being stabbed in Long Beach." The entry gave an address on Atlantic Avenue, but it did not say whether that was a home, a business or the place where he was found, and no follow-up news story about his death appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Dwhight Gary Davidson 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. His first name is spelled in an unusual way, which would normally make him easy to find, yet searches for his full name return nothing beyond the coroner's record itself.
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.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city on San Pedro Bay with its own police department, its own harbor and a downtown waterfront that draws visitors to the Queen Mary and the Aquarium of the Pacific. Atlantic Avenue is one of the city's long north-south streets, running from near downtown up through central and north Long Beach. It is lined with small businesses, apartment buildings, churches and modest homes.
At 19, Dwhight Gary Davidson was barely out of his teens. He was old enough to be finishing school, starting a first job or thinking about what he wanted to do with his life, and young enough that his parents, grandparents or other relatives may well still be alive. Whoever stabbed him took away nearly all of the years he should have had.
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 Dwhight Gary Davidson 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 19-year-old named Dwhight Davidson in Long Beach, or who was on or near Atlantic Avenue in mid-March 2004, may hold information that could help. Friends from school or the neighborhood may remember who he spent time with. 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).
