Ricky Alton Sagoes was 53 years old when he died on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012, in Koreatown. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma near West 6th Street and South Vermont Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by West Bureau Homicide.
He was a Black man in his early 50s. Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Ricky Alton Sagoes 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 surname is an unusual one. The only other trace of the name that turned up was a 1970 family obituary from Atlanta that lists a Ricky Sagoes among the brothers and sisters of the man who died. Nothing in the public record shows whether that boy and the man who died in Koreatown four decades later were the same person, and it would be a guess to say so.
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 location the coroner gave is an intersection rather than a street address. That suggests he may have been found outdoors, on a sidewalk or in the street near the corner, although the record does not say so directly.
Koreatown lies just west of downtown Los Angeles and is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city. Its streets are lined with apartment buildings, office towers, restaurants, karaoke bars, markets and small shops, many of them owned by Korean American families, and it is home to a large Latino population as well. Vermont Avenue is one of its main north-south corridors, and the corner of 6th Street and Vermont is a block north of Wilshire Boulevard, where the Metro subway stops at the Wilshire/Vermont station.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Ricky Alton Sagoes could be found in news archives or public records. More than 13 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near West 6th Street and South Vermont Avenue in mid-October 2012, or who knew Ricky and saw him in the days before his death, may hold information that could help detectives. Family members who remember him could also help by sharing who he was. 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.
