Cedric Al Tunstell

Cedric Al Tunstell was 58 years old when he died on Saturday, December 4, 2021, in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds after being stabbed near 5110 Washington Blvd. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's West Bureau Homicide unit.

The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 58-year-old Black male" who "died Saturday, Dec. 4, after being stabbed near 5110 Washington Blvd. in Mid-City." The entry gave a street address, but it did not say whether that was his home, a business or simply the place where he was found. No follow-up story appears to have been written.

Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Cedric Al Tunstell 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. Tunstell is not a common surname, which makes the silence more striking. Searches for his full name turned up almost nothing, and the few scattered records that surfaced could not be tied to his death.

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.

Mid-City is a large, densely populated and largely residential part of central Los Angeles, lying between the Westside and downtown. Its streets are lined with modest houses, small apartment buildings, churches and neighborhood businesses, and it has long been one of the more diverse parts of the city. Washington Boulevard is one of the long east-west arteries that cross it, carrying steady traffic past storefronts, bus stops and homes at all hours.

His death came late in 2021, the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when daily life across Los Angeles was still unsettled. Los Angeles recorded about 260 homicides a year in 2018 and 2019, among the lowest yearly totals in more than half a century, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.

No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Cedric Al Tunstell could be found in news archives or public records. More than four years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 58-year-old man named Cedric Tunstell, or who was on or near the 5100 block of Washington Boulevard in Mid-City in early December 2021, 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.