Andre Romeko Triggs was 19 years old when he died on Wednesday, June 30, 2004, in Compton. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1501 E. Rosecrans Ave. 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 19-year-old black male" who "died Wednesday, June 30, after being stabbed in Compton." That short entry is nearly all that has been made public about his death.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Andre Romeko Triggs 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.
The name Andre Triggs is not common, and his middle name, Romeko, is rarer still. Searches turn up only unrelated people, among them a Virginia man named Gary Andre Triggs who died in 2017 at the age of 75 and a man named Andre' Triggs listed as a surviving relative in an Ohio obituary. None of them can be connected to the young man who died in Compton. The record gives an address on East Rosecrans Avenue, a major boulevard, which suggests he may have been hurt on or near a busy street, though it does not say so.
Compton is a city of roughly 95,000 people in the southern part of Los Angeles County, between South Los Angeles and Long Beach. It has a long history as a center of Black life and culture in Southern California and is known around the world through music, sports figures and film. The city is made up largely of single family homes on modest lots, along with commercial strips on its main boulevards. Rosecrans Avenue is one of the major east-west streets that cross the city. Compton disbanded its own police department in 2000, and since then the Sheriff's Department has patrolled the city and investigated its homicides.
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 Andre Romeko Triggs could be found in news archives or public records. More than 21 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Andre Triggs, or who was on or near East Rosecrans Avenue in Compton in late June 2004, may hold information that could help investigators. 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 (8477).
