Yusuf El-Williams was 62 years old when he died on Tuesday, August 18, 2020. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near the corner of 6th and San Pedro streets in downtown Los Angeles. His death was ruled a homicide. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report lists the investigating agency as the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau, which is unusual for a death in downtown Los Angeles, where the city police normally investigate.
He was a Black man in his early 60s. The Medical Examiner's record gives his name as Yusuf El- Williams, apparently a hyphenated family name. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Yusuf El-Williams 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 beaten in a fight, attacked by a stranger, assaulted indoors or on the street, or struck by a vehicle, all of which can lead to a finding of blunt force trauma. 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 corner of 6th and San Pedro streets is in the heart of Skid Row, the roughly 50-block area east of downtown's office towers where thousands of people live in tents, shelters and single-room-occupancy hotels. Skid Row has one of the largest concentrations of unhoused people in the United States, along with missions, clinics and social service agencies. It also has some of the highest rates of violent crime in the city. People living on the street are attacked far more often than people with homes, and many of those assaults are never reported or solved. The Sheriff's Department's involvement may mean that he was hurt somewhere other than where the record places him, or that his case was connected to a county facility, but no public record says so.
Homicides rose sharply across Los Angeles County in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, after years of relatively low numbers, and detectives were stretched across a growing caseload. Many of those killings were shootings that drew at least brief coverage on local television. In the summer of 2020, the pandemic made life on Skid Row even harder, as shelters reduced their capacity and many services closed.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Yusuf El-Williams could be found in news archives or public records. Nearly six years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone on Skid Row who knew him, or who saw something near 6th and San Pedro streets in mid-August 2020, 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 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.
