Gene Robert Scott was 55 years old when he died on Tuesday, March 5, 2002, in Pomona. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at Garey Avenue and Artesia Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Pomona 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 55-year-old white male" who "died Tuesday, March 5, after being stabbed in Pomona." 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 Gene Robert Scott 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. Gene Scott is a common name, and searches for it are crowded with the late Los Angeles television preacher of that name and with obituaries for unrelated men in North Carolina, Ohio, New York and Canada. None of them can be connected to the man who died in Pomona in 2002.
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.
At 55 he was a man in late middle age, with most of a lifetime behind him. Nothing in the record says whether he had a wife or children, what kind of work he did, whether he lived near the corner where he died or was only passing through, or whether relatives elsewhere were ever told how he died.
Pomona is a city at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, in the valley that shares its name. It is home to the Fairplex, where the Los Angeles County Fair has been held for about a century, and to Cal Poly Pomona. Garey Avenue is one of the city's main north-south streets, lined with shops, businesses and homes.
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 Gene Robert Scott 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 was near Garey Avenue and Artesia Street in early March 2002, or who knew a 55-year-old man named Gene Robert Scott in Pomona, 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 contact the Pomona Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
