Dispatch, Jan. 31, 2007: Introduction

The list represents an effort to provide comprehensive coverage of all homicides that occur in Los Angeles County.

Overwhelmed by the sheer volume, the Los Angeles Times, like other major media organizations, covers only a fraction of the more than 1,000 murders in Los Angeles County each year. Many violent deaths become, in essence, private homicides -- catastrophic on a small scale, invisible on a broader one.

Starting with this week's homicide report, however, The Times will list all homicides reported to the Los Angeles County coroner, plus additional information gleaned from street and law enforcement sources. This week's list is larger than usual because of a January crime wave, but otherwise fairly typical in terms of the ages and ethnicities of those killed and the manner of their deaths.

Their number includes a young woman found on a Playa del Rey roadside, a young couple mysteriously shot and then set on fire, and a Valley man who placed himself between his landlord and an attacker and died for his courage.

-- Jill Leovy