Jose Anglo Umali was 58 years old when he died on Wednesday, November 1, 2017, in Westlake. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 2117 W. 6th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Rampart Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, which draws on coroner's records, lists him as a 58-year-old Asian man and gives no other details about what happened to him.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Jose Anglo Umali 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. Searches for the name turn up other men named Jose Umali in obituaries from Northern California, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, none of whom can be tied to the man who died in Westlake.
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.
Westlake is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles, lying just west of downtown. Its center is MacArthur Park, the historic park and lake that gave the district its name, and Sixth Street runs past the park and through blocks of older apartment buildings, small shops, street vendors and bus stops. The neighborhood is home to many working families and recent immigrants, and it has long had a visible population of people living on the street. Its sidewalks are busy at nearly all hours.
The Rampart Division covers Westlake and several nearby neighborhoods. Cases with few public details, like this one, can easily fade from view once the initial investigation slows.
At 58, Jose Anglo Umali had lived most of his life by the time he died. Where he worked, whether he had a family nearby and how long he had lived in the area are not part of the public record.
By the mid-2010s Los Angeles was recording roughly 250 to 300 homicides a year, among the lowest totals in decades, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Jose Anglo Umali could be found in news archives or public records. More than eight years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on Sixth Street near MacArthur Park at the start of November 2017, or who knew Jose Anglo Umali and his routines, may know something that has never reached detectives. 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.
