George Alejandro Banda was 25 years old when he died on Thursday, September 20, 2001, in Long Beach. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at Carson Street and Cherry Avenue. 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 25-year-old Latino male" who "died Thursday, Sept. 20, after being stabbed in Long Beach." The location was given as an intersection rather than a street address, which suggests he may have been hurt or found outdoors, but the record does not say so directly. No follow-up story appears to have been written.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about George Alejandro Banda 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 name George Banda is not especially common, but searches turn up a decorated Vietnam veteran from Wisconsin, a former bar owner in San Francisco and men named in obituaries in several states and in Canada, 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.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County and one of the largest in California, home to one of the busiest seaports in the country, a long shoreline and a mix of neighborhoods that range from downtown high-rises to quiet single-family tracts. Carson Street is a major east-west boulevard that crosses the northern part of the city, and Cherry Avenue is one of its main north-south streets. Long Beach has its own police department, whose Homicide Detail investigates killings within the city limits.
He died nine days after the September 11 attacks, when national news was dominated by events far from Southern California. A stabbing recorded in a single line of coroner's data would have drawn little notice in those weeks.
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 George Alejandro Banda 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 near Carson Street and Cherry Avenue in Long Beach in September 2001, or who knew a 25-year-old man named George Banda in Long Beach or the nearby cities, 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 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).
