Arlex Leonardo Bolaines Flores was 27 years old when he died on Tuesday, January 4, 2022, in Paramount. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after being stabbed near 6845 San Carlos St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 27-year-old Latino male" who "died Tuesday, Jan. 4, after being stabbed near 6845 San Carlos St. in Paramount." The entry, drawn from coroner's records, gave no details about what happened, and no news story about his death could be found.
The clearest picture of who he was comes from the people who knew him. On January 5, 2022, the day after he died, an online fundraiser titled "In memory of Arlex Leonardo Bolaines-Flores" was started on GoFundMe by an organizer in Downey, on behalf of a woman who shares his surname.
"It's pretty difficult making this for someone who was such a great light to everyone he came across," the organizer wrote, asking people to "unite in support of the Bolaines-Flores family and contribute with a donation that will help with expenses generated by this sudden and horrific event."
The response was large. The fundraiser drew 318 donations and raised $27,200 toward a goal of $30,000, a sign that many people, relatives, friends, neighbors and perhaps coworkers, felt his loss. The page did not describe how he died, where he lived or worked, or what investigators had learned, and it did not name a suspect.
Because so little has been released, the basic circumstances of the stabbing remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was attacked during a fight or a robbery, by a stranger or by someone he knew, what time of day it happened, or whether anyone saw it. It also does not say whether the address on San Carlos Street was his home.
Paramount is a small, densely built city in southeastern Los Angeles County, between Downey, Lynwood, Compton and Long Beach. Once an area of dairy farms, it grew after World War II into a working-class suburb of modest homes, apartments and industrial businesses. It is perhaps best known as the place where Frank Zamboni built the first ice resurfacing machine at his skating rink, Paramount Iceland. Like many smaller cities in the county, Paramount contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services, so its homicides are investigated by the department's Homicide Bureau.
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 Arlex Leonardo Bolaines Flores could be found in news archives or public records. More than three years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. The hundreds of people who gave to his memorial fund show how many lives he touched, and someone among those who knew him, or who was near San Carlos Street in Paramount in early January 2022, 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 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
