Enrique Gomez was 50 years old when he died on Wednesday, May 20, 2020, in El Monte. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after being stabbed near 10024 Valley Blvd. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him only as "a 50-year-old Latino male" who "died Wednesday, May 20, after being stabbed near 10024 Valley Blvd. in El Monte." That single line from coroner's records is nearly all that has been made public about how he died.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Enrique Gomez 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.
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.
Enrique Gomez is a very common name. Searches turn up a murder suspect in Texas, an artist in Miami, a lawyer in Houston, a city employee with a similar name and dozens of obituaries for other men, none of whom can be connected to this death. That commonness has made it even harder for any trace of this particular man to surface in public records. At 50, he very likely had a long history in the area, with family, coworkers or neighbors who would remember him.
El Monte is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, east of downtown Los Angeles, with a long history as a crossroads. Valley Boulevard is one of the main east-west commercial corridors of the San Gabriel Valley, lined with auto shops, restaurants, motels, small businesses and strip malls, and it carries heavy traffic through El Monte and its neighbors. The listing of the Sheriff's Department as the investigating agency, rather than a city police department, may reflect where the address falls or how the case was assigned, but the record does not explain it.
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 Enrique Gomez could be found in news archives or public records. More than five years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on or near Valley Boulevard in El Monte in May 2020, or who knew a 50-year-old man named Enrique Gomez who spent time there, 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 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.
