Gregory Michael McKee was 55 years old when he died on Thursday, June 13, 2019, in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1663 W. 11th Place. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Rampart Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him only as "a 55-year-old black male" who "died Thursday, June 13, after being stabbed in Pico-Union." No news story about the stabbing could be found, and the police have not released any public account of what happened.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Gregory Michael McKee 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.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone he knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. 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.
Gregory McKee is a fairly common name. Searches turn up an economist, a lawyer in Maryland, a college track athlete and obituaries for several other men, including one in Pennsylvania who shared his full name but died years later. None of them can be connected to this death, and that crowd of namesakes has made it even harder for any trace of this particular man to surface.
Pico-Union is a densely populated neighborhood just west of downtown Los Angeles, named for the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Union Avenue. Its streets are lined with older apartment buildings, early 20th-century houses, small markets and churches, and it has long been one of the most crowded neighborhoods in the city. Many residents are immigrant families, and many newcomers to Los Angeles have made it their first home. West 11th Place is a short residential street of the kind found throughout the area, where neighbors live close together and many people are out on the sidewalks at all hours. On a street like that, someone may have heard or seen something that was never reported.
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 Gregory Michael McKee 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 West 11th Place in Pico-Union in June 2019, or who knew a 55-year-old man named Gregory McKee who spent time there, 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.
