Ramirez Gomez Gonzales was 27 years old when he died on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2003, in the Westlake district just west of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at Burlington Avenue and Beverly Boulevard. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Rampart 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 27-year-old Latino male" who "died Saturday, Feb. 22, after being stabbed in Westlake." The entry gave an intersection rather than a street address, which suggests he may have been hurt or found outdoors, on a sidewalk or in the street, although the record does not say so directly. 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 Ramirez Gomez Gonzales 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. The way his name was recorded is itself a puzzle. Ramirez, Gomez and Gonzales are all common surnames, and the coroner's entry lists no separate first name that stands apart from them, so it is possible that part of his name was recorded in an unusual order. Searches turn up many people named Ramirez Gonzales in Texas, Utah and elsewhere, but none of them can be connected to the young man who died in Westlake.
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.
Westlake is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles. It grew up in the early 1900s around the lake at MacArthur Park, then a fashionable district of hotels and fine homes, and over the decades it became a crowded area of older apartment buildings, small shops and street vendors. By the early 2000s it was home to many working families and recent immigrants, especially from Mexico and Central America.
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 Ramirez Gomez Gonzales could be found in news archives or public records. More than 22 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Burlington Avenue and Beverly Boulevard in late February 2003, or who knew a 27-year-old man by this name in Westlake, 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 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).
