Michael Yonko was 46 years old when he died on Thursday, January 19, 2017, a week after he was beaten in Koreatown. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near West Sixth Street and South Vermont Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department West Bureau Homicide case.
At about 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 12, Michael was sitting in a chair in a parking lot when someone walked up behind him and assaulted him with a baseball bat, according to Los Angeles Police Det. John Lamberti. The attacker was described only as a black man wearing bulky clothing. Michael was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:09 a.m. on January 19. Lamberti said Michael was a homeless man who frequented the area.
That is nearly all that has been made public about him. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found, and no other news outlet appears to have reported on the attack. Yonko is an uncommon surname, and the records that turn up belong to families in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York, none of whom can be tied to the man who died in Los Angeles. He may have had relatives elsewhere who never learned what happened to him.
The details that are known describe an attack from behind on a man who was sitting down, at a time of evening when the area is still busy. Nothing in the record says whether he knew his attacker, whether there had been an earlier dispute, or whether anything was taken. People who live outdoors are often attacked by strangers, but they also know the people around them well, and someone on the street may have known who had a problem with him.
Koreatown is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles, a few miles west of downtown. Its blocks are packed with apartment buildings, Korean and Latino restaurants, shops, offices and late-night businesses. Vermont Avenue is a major north-south street, and the corner of Sixth and Vermont lies a block from Wilshire Boulevard and near the Wilshire/Vermont Metro station, where buses and trains bring a steady stream of people. Parking lots in the area see foot traffic well into the night, and an attack at 7:30 in the evening may have been seen by passersby, drivers or people in nearby buildings.
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 Michael Yonko 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 near Sixth Street and Vermont Avenue on the evening of January 12, 2017, or who knew Michael Yonko from the neighborhood, may hold information that could help. Detectives asked anyone with information to call LAPD West Bureau homicide detectives at 382-9470. 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.
