Deangelo Brooks was an infant, less than a year old, when he died on Saturday, January 20, 2001. 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 under the agency code LBH, which refers to the Long Beach Police Department. The public record does not give an address or a neighborhood for where he was hurt or where he died.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report entry for him is among the shortest in its database. It described him only as "a black male" who "died Saturday, Jan. 20, after sustaining blunt force trauma," and listed his age as zero. It did not name his parents or caregivers, a detective, a hospital or any suspect.
Beyond his name, his age and the date of his death, almost nothing about Deangelo Brooks 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. A baby so young leaves few traces in the public record, but he surely had family who remember him. Deangelo Brooks is also a fairly common name, and searches for it turn up only adult men in other states, none of whom has any connection to this child.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown. When a baby dies of blunt force trauma, the injuries are most often inflicted inside a home, but the record does not say where this child was hurt, who was caring for him at the time, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect. Any of those details would change the story, and none of them is public.
Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, a port city on San Pedro Bay with a downtown waterfront, the Queen Mary, a large harbor and a mix of neighborhoods that range from quiet residential streets to dense apartment blocks. The city has its own police department, which investigates homicides within its borders, separately from the Los Angeles Police Department and the Sheriff's Department.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest. Deaths of very young children are among the hardest cases for detectives, because the people who know what happened are often the only adults who were present, and because injuries can be difficult to date.
It is not publicly known whether Long Beach detectives ever presented this case to prosecutors, or whether anyone was questioned in connection with the death. A file may exist with far more detail than the single line released to the public.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Deangelo Brooks could be found in news archives or public records. More than 24 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew this baby or his family in Long Beach in January 2001, or who knew something about how he was hurt, may hold information that could still matter to 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 Long Beach Police Department's Homicide Detail at 562-570-7244, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
