James Edwards Bills Jr. was 57 years old when he died on Wednesday, October 18, 2017, in Willowbrook, an unincorporated community in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 100 block of West 132nd Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report said Bills "was one of many homeless people who live in cars or motor homes along this wide, industrial street," according to Sheriff's Lt. Derrick Alfred. "Investigators think some kind of argument occurred that morning," Alfred said, and Bills was stabbed. A correction published by the Times placed the stabbing at around 8:10 a.m. Bills was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:01 a.m., according to coroner's records.
Detectives believed they had found the weapon.
Investigators "believe they have recovered the weapon, 'an improvised stabbing instrument,'" Alfred told the Times. The suspect was described only as a black male in his late teens who was considered to be a transient. No name, photograph or further description was released, and the Times report did not say what the argument was about or whether the two had known each other.
Beyond his name, his age and the street where he lived and died, almost nothing about James Bills Jr. has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no other news outlet appears to have reported on his death. He surely had relatives and friends who remember him, but none of that has entered the public record. Searches for his name turned up only other men named James Bills in Ohio, Tennessee, Utah and Florida, none of them connected to this case.
His life on the street shaped the case in ways the public record can only hint at. People who live in vehicles along an industrial road often know one another by sight, notice newcomers and see arguments start. The morning hour, the recovered weapon and the description of a young suspect suggest that people living nearby may have seen or heard part of what happened, although the record does not say whether any witnesses came forward.
Willowbrook lies between Compton and Watts and is policed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The community is home to the Martin Luther King Jr. medical campus, and parts of it are made up of warehouses, yards and wide commercial streets where vehicles can be parked for long stretches.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of James Edwards Bills Jr. could be found in news archives or public records. More than eight years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was living or working along West 132nd Street in October 2017, or who knew of a young man in that area who carried a homemade weapon, may know something that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward.
The Times asked anyone with information to call Dets. John Carlin or Ralph Hernandez at the sheriff's Homicide Bureau, 890-5500. 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.
