William David Angel was 20 years old when he died on Saturday, July 5, 2014, in East Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 1408 S. Woods Place. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
The coroner's records describe him as a white man, 20 years old. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about William David Angel 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. His name is not rare, and searches for it turned up only other people who share it, among them an editor of a book on international youth rights and men named William Angel whose obituaries were published in other states.
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 record gives a specific street address, which may mean he was hurt at or near a home on Woods Place, but it does not say whether he lived there or was visiting.
East Los Angeles is one of the largest unincorporated communities in Los Angeles County. It has no city government of its own, so it is governed by the county Board of Supervisors and policed by the Sheriff's Department rather than by a city police force. The community is overwhelmingly Latino, with deep family roots that in many households go back several generations, and it is known across Southern California for Whittier Boulevard, its long commercial strip,. Most of its residential streets are lined with small single-family homes and modest apartment buildings set close together.
That closeness can cut both ways in a homicide case. People on a residential street may well have heard an argument or seen someone leave in a hurry, but they may also hesitate to speak to detectives. Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest. The death of a 20-year-old man on a residential street in East Los Angeles received only a brief entry in the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, and no news story about it could be found.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of William David Angel could be found in news archives or public records. More than 11 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near Woods Place in East Los Angeles in early July 2014, or who knew William, may hold information that could help investigators. 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.
