Joshua Glover was 25 years old when he died on Saturday, February 16, 2019, in Compton. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 1800 block of East Alondra Boulevard. His death was ruled a homicide. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report lists the agency as "Compton PD," although the city of Compton has been policed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department under contract since 2000.
The Homicide Report described him only as "a 25-year-old black male" who "died Saturday, Feb. 16, after being stabbed in Compton." That brief entry, drawn 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 Joshua Glover 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.
His name has made the search for him harder. Joshua Glover is best known as the name of a man who escaped slavery in the 1850s and whose rescue from a Milwaukee jail became a famous episode in Wisconsin history, and searches for the name are crowded with books, museum pages and school projects about him. Other results point to men of the same name in Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi and South Carolina, none of whom can be connected to this death in Compton. At 25, the Joshua Glover who died on Alondra Boulevard was a young man who may have had parents, siblings, children or friends who could still describe who he was and how he spent his days.
Compton is a city of about 95,000 people in southern Los Angeles County, between Los Angeles and Long Beach. It is largely made up of single-family homes on quiet residential streets, along with commercial corridors and industrial areas. Alondra Boulevard is one of the major east-west streets that cross the city, lined with shops, businesses and homes. Compton is widely known for its place in the history of West Coast hip-hop.
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 Joshua Glover could be found in news archives or public records. More than six years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on or near East Alondra Boulevard in Compton in February 2019, or who knew a 25-year-old man named Joshua Glover, 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.
