Alfredo Javier Evangelista was 41 years old when he died on Saturday, June 24, 2000, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 223 W. 8th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Central 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 41-year-old Asian male" who "died Saturday, June 24, after being stabbed in Downtown." It gave no other details about what happened, and no news story about his death appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Alfredo Javier Evangelista 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. Searches for his name are crowded with other men called Alfredo Evangelista, among them a Spanish heavyweight boxer who fought Muhammad Ali in 1977, a Filipino archaeologist who died in 2008, a lawyer in Hawaii and men whose obituaries were published in New York and Ohio. None of them can be connected to the man who died downtown in 2000.
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 200 block of West 8th Street lies in the historic core of downtown Los Angeles, a few blocks from the Broadway theater district, with its early 20th-century movie palaces, and from the jewelry and garment businesses that crowd the surrounding streets. In 2000 the area was a busy daytime shopping district for working families, filled with discount stores and street vendors, but it emptied out at night, before the wave of loft conversions that later brought many new residents to the old office buildings. Parts of downtown, including the nearby Skid Row area to the east, have long been home to many people living in shelters, residential hotels or on the street. The area is patrolled by the LAPD's Central Division.
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 Alfredo Javier Evangelista 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 200 block of West 8th Street in downtown Los Angeles in late June 2000, or who knew a 41-year-old man named Alfredo Evangelista who lived or worked downtown 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).
