Mikeal Abdul Wah-Hab III was a baby only about three months old when his death was recorded on Saturday, November 19, 2005. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
The Los Angeles Times later told his story in detail. Mikeal was born at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. On November 1, 2005, when he was nearly 12 weeks old, his father carried him into the Midnight Mission on skid row in downtown Los Angeles, saying that the baby's mother had abandoned them and taken their belongings. County social workers said Mikeal "looked well-fed, healthy and safe" when they examined him there. After an interview, workers drove the father and son to Monterey Park and left them at a low-cost motel that had a contract to house homeless families.
Nearly three weeks later, the Times reported, a motel maintenance man grew concerned because the baby's father had stopped signing the daily guest book. He used a passkey to open the door to Room 226. "On the bed in the empty room lay baby Mikeal, covered with a beige blanket." The body was partly decomposed, and the coroner said he died of a head injury.
His death became part of a larger debate about how Los Angeles County protects children. A special counsel hired by the Board of Supervisors reviewed the case and, according to the Times, found that no one was piecing together information across agencies. In January 2008, more than two years after his death, Supervisor Gloria Molina called on sheriff's detectives and prosecutors to redouble their efforts to solve Mikeal's killing. "At every single level, in order to bring justice to this child, there has to be. . . accountability," she said.
Monterey Park is a city in the western San Gabriel Valley, just east of Los Angeles, with busy commercial streets and a long history as a home for immigrant families. The motels along its main roads have often served travelers and, at times, people placed there by public agencies. Skid row, where Mikeal's last weeks began, is a district on the eastern edge of downtown Los Angeles with the largest concentration of homeless people in the region and many shelters and missions.
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 baby who had been seen by social workers only weeks earlier drew the attention of county leaders, which makes it all the more striking that no resolution has been made public.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Mikeal Abdul Wah-Hab III could be found in news archives or public records. More than 20 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who stayed at or worked at the Monterey Park motel in November 2005, or who knew the family, 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.
