Gwayne Jennings was 42 years old when he died on Thursday, February 12, 2004, in Willowbrook, an unincorporated community in South Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 2110 E. 124th 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 42-year-old black male" who "died Thursday, Feb. 12, after being stabbed in Willowbrook." That short entry, drawn from coroner's records, 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 Gwayne Jennings 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 first name is unusual, and searches for it turn up almost nothing. The one trace found is a list of students printed in the 1979 yearbook of Compton High School, which includes a Gwayne Jennings. A man who was 42 in early 2004 would have been a teenager in 1979, and Compton High lies only a few miles from 124th Street, which suggests the student and the man who died in Willowbrook may have been the same person. That cannot be confirmed from the yearbook alone. The record gives a residential street address, which suggests he may have been hurt at or near a home, though it does not say whether he lived there.
Willowbrook lies between Watts and the city of Compton. Because it is not part of any city, it is policed by the Sheriff's Department. It is largely a neighborhood of modest single-family homes and small apartment buildings on numbered east-west streets, and many families have lived there for generations. It is home to the Martin Luther King Jr. medical campus and to Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, and the Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Metro station, where rail lines meet, sits near the heart of the area.
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 Gwayne Jennings 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 Gwayne Jennings, perhaps from Willowbrook or from Compton High School,, or who was on or near East 124th Street in Willowbrook in February 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).
