Lashante Kirkpatrick was 16 years old when she died on Monday, Oct. 14, 2019, in the Vermont Square neighborhood of South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at 910 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department South Bureau Homicide case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described her only as "a 16-year-old black female" who "died Monday, Oct. 14, after being stabbed in Vermont Square." She was a teenager, still of high school age, and the record gives no more than that.
Beyond her name, her age and the place where she died, almost nothing about Lashante Kirkpatrick 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.
She surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record. Searches for her name returned no results at all beyond the coroner's listing, not even an unrelated namesake, which is unusual and suggests that her name may be spelled differently in other records.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether she was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone she knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day she was hurt, whether she died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
The death of a 16-year-old girl is the kind of case that usually draws attention from classmates, teachers, coaches and neighbors. Somebody knew where Lashante was going that Monday, who she was with and whether anything had been troubling her. Those people may have spoken only among themselves, or may have been afraid to speak at all.
Vermont Square is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles, named for a small park and long anchored by the Vermont Square branch library, one of the oldest public library buildings in the city. It is a dense area of older bungalows, small apartment buildings, churches, schools and corner businesses. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is one of the major east-west streets of South Los Angeles, carrying steady traffic and bus lines through a mix of homes and storefronts, and many families have lived along it and on the side streets nearby for generations.
Los Angeles recorded about 260 homicides a year in 2018 and 2019, among the lowest yearly totals in more than half a century, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Lashante Kirkpatrick could be found in news archives or public records. More than six years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived on or near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Vermont Square in October 2019, who went to school with Lashante, or who knew her family, may hold information that could help detectives. 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.
