Levester Dowden was 59 years old when he died on Saturday, July 15, 2000, in the Broadway-Manchester area of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 11106 Broadway. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Southeast 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 59-year-old black male" who "died Saturday, July 15, after being stabbed in Broadway-Manchester." It gave no details about what happened.
His name appeared once more in print, a few months later. On Jan. 7, 2001, the Los Angeles Times Magazine published a piece in its "Our Town" series under the heading "Take a Look at the Sad Statistics of the Southeast Police Division, the Deadliest Neighborhood in Los Angeles."
It listed the people killed in the division during 2000, one line each, with only a name, sex, race and age. One of those lines read: "Levester Dowden, male, black, 59." He was among the oldest people on the list, most of whom were teenagers and young men.
Beyond that line, almost nothing about Levester Dowden 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 circumstances of his death. Levester is an uncommon first name, and searches for his full name turn up nothing else about him. He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
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.
Broadway is one of the long north-south streets of South Los Angeles, running from downtown through neighborhoods such as Broadway-Manchester and on toward the city's southern edge. In this stretch it is lined with small businesses, churches, liquor stores, apartment buildings and modest single-family homes, and the surrounding streets are largely residential. The 11100 block lies in the southern part of the area, south of Manchester Avenue. The area is patrolled by the LAPD's Southeast Division, which covers Watts and the neighborhoods around it.
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 Levester Dowden could be found in news archives or public records. More than 25 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near the 11100 block of South Broadway in mid-July 2000, or who knew a 59-year-old man named Levester Dowden in South Los Angeles 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 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).
