Braulio Rocha Ramirez was 25 years old when he died on Thursday, May 2, 2002. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Harbor Division. Unlike most entries in the record, his gives no street address and no neighborhood for the place where he was hurt.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 25-year-old Latino male" who "died Thursday, May 2, after being stabbed." That is the whole of the public account. Because the case was assigned to Harbor Division, he was most likely hurt somewhere in the harbor area at the southern tip of the city, but the record does not say where.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Braulio Rocha Ramirez 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. Braulio Ramirez is a fairly common name in Mexico and among Spanish-speaking families in the United States, and searches turn up an engineer, litigants in Texas court filings and older men whose obituaries were published in Texas and California, none of whom 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.
The Harbor Division covers the neighborhoods that ring the Port of Los Angeles, including San Pedro, Wilmington and Harbor City, as well as the Harbor Gateway, the narrow strip of city land that connects the port to the rest of Los Angeles. The area is a mix of working waterfront, oil and industrial sites, and residential streets, and many of its residents work on the docks or in related trades.
Homicides in Los Angeles rose sharply in the early 2000s, climbing past 600 in 2002, and detectives carried heavy caseloads. Many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Braulio Rocha Ramirez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 23 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 25-year-old man named Braulio Ramirez in San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City or the Harbor Gateway, or who heard about a stabbing in the harbor area in early May 2002, 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).
