Los Angeles County deputies seek help identifying person in homicide case

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives were back in the public eye with a familiar kind of ask: help put names to faces in a homicide case. This time, investigators released sketches of two men sought in the fatal shooting of 33-year-old Gabriel Ramirez, who was killed on Feb. 2, 2026, around 4:52 p.m. in the 1700 block of Firestone Boulevard in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department described the men as Hispanic, about 20 to 25 years old, roughly 5-foot-9 to 6 feet tall, with medium builds. The sketches were drawn by a LASD forensic artist using information from homicide detectives, a sign that investigators were trying to turn witness memory into something the public could actually compare with a real face. In a case like this, the person LASD wants identified is not a side detail. The department is looking for a lead that could connect those sketches to names, movements, and ultimately to the shooting of Ramirez.

LASD pushed the appeal through a Nixle alert and pointed the public to several reporting channels. Anonymous tips could be sent through Crime Stoppers or through Nixle’s Tip Watch system, which allows residents to submit tips by text message and web messaging. The Homicide Bureau also lists a direct phone number, (323) 890-5500, for anyone with information about the case. The bureau investigates murders in areas patrolled by the sheriff’s department, and its public homicide reports run from 1925 to the present, underscoring how often these appeals become part of the investigative record.

The strategy is not new. In a March 4, 2026 homicide case, LASD released sketches of two men sought in the February 2 killing of Gabriel Ramirez and again asked the public to help identify them. The department has also used public-facing appeals and rewards in other murder investigations, including the May 17, 2023 case of Carlos Alvarez-Diaz, when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a $20,000 reward and the City of Hawaiian Gardens added $10,000, bringing the total to $30,000. That kind of public identification drive has broken cases before, and investigators are clearly hoping this one does the same.