Aaron Ray Cooper was 40 years old when he died on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2001, in the Hyde Park area of South Los Angeles, near the border with Inglewood. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 3515 West 73rd Place. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as an Inglewood 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 40-year-old black male" who "died Thursday, Oct. 11, after being stabbed in Hyde Park." The entry gave a residential street address, but it did not say whether he lived there, was visiting or was found outside. 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 Ray Cooper 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 name is shared by many men, and searches turn up arrest logs in Florida, a young man killed in a Virginia prison in 2010 and a medical researcher, none of whom can be connected to the 40-year-old man who died in October 2001.
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 case is listed under the Inglewood Police Department even though the Times placed the address in Hyde Park, a Los Angeles neighborhood. It may mean that he was attacked inside Inglewood and died at the Hyde Park address, or that the address sits close enough to the city line that Inglewood took the case, but that is only a guess.
Hyde Park is a residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles. Its streets are lined mostly with modest single-family homes, many built in the first half of the twentieth century, with shops and restaurants along larger streets such as Slauson Avenue, Florence Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard. Inglewood, its neighbor to the west, is a separate city with its own police department, long known as the home of the Forum arena.
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 Aaron Ray Cooper could be found in news archives or public records. More than 24 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on or near West 73rd Place in early October 2001, or who knew a 40-year-old man named Aaron Cooper in Hyde Park or Inglewood at that time, 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 Inglewood Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
