Lewis Homan was 21 years old when he was killed in Oakland on Monday, April 16, 2012. The Oakland Police Department investigated his death, and the Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in Oakland from 2008 through 2017, lists it as a homicide that remained open with no arrest.
Beyond his name, his age and the date of his death, almost nothing about Lewis Homan has been made public.
No news story about his killing, obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account. A young man of 21 would have had family, friends and classmates 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 how he was killed, whether he was attacked indoors or on the street, whether he knew his attacker, what time of day it happened, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
His death came during one of the most violent years in Oakland's recent history. The city recorded 131 homicides in 2012, the most in a decade, and many of the year's killings received only a line or two of coverage, or none at all.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in East Oakland, east of the city's center near the MacArthur Boulevard corridor. People who lived in that area in mid-April 2012 may remember the police activity that followed his death.
Oakland was one of the most violent large cities in California in those years. The city recorded 148 homicides in 2006 and more than 100 in most years through 2013, and its police department solved far fewer of them than the statewide average. In 2010 and 2011, Oakland police cleared only about 30 percent of the city's homicides. Cases with few public details, like his, often faded from view quickly.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Lewis Homan could be found in news archives or public records. More than 14 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Lewis Homan and saw him in April 2012, or who heard talk afterward of what happened to him, may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Oakland Police Department Homicide Section at (510) 238-3821 or the homicide tip line at (510) 238-7950, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers of Oakland at (510) 777-8572.
