Frederick Smith was 55 years old when he died on Tuesday, August 8, 2017, in the city of San Fernando. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds near the 500 block of South Huntington Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
His body was found behind the softball fields in Las Palmas Park, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. NPR described "a homeless man in his mid-50s, found stabbed to death in a park in the San Fernando Valley, his body in a pool of blood behind the softball fields." It took several days for him to be identified, and when he was, the name meant a great deal to music fans on the other side of the country.
He was Fred "Freak" Smith, a guitarist who had been "an outsized figure within Washington, D.C.'s vibrant '80s hardcore punk scene," NPR reported.
He played with several bands, including Beefeater and Strange Boutique, and had a following in West Hollywood and in Washington, where he grew up. Ian MacKaye, founder of Dischord Records, told L.A. Weekly that "Beefeater was a revolutionary band" and that "Freak was an extremely gifted musician and a real kook, unlike anyone else. He was enthusiastic and bold." A bandmate told NPR that Smith studied music education at Howard University. A paid obituary in The Washington Post remembered him as Frederick E. Smith Jr., "a black punk rock musician by the name of 'Freak.'"
His later years were hard. Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said Smith developed mental health issues around 2012 and had recently moved out of a home catering to individuals with mental disabilities. In September 2017 the Board of Supervisors approved a $10,000 reward, and Kuehl said, "He paved the way for African-American musicians in the punk genre." She noted that "many families were in the park. Kids were practicing baseball in the nearby fields," and that investigators hoped someone had witnessed the crime. The board renewed the reward that November, when the Daily News reported that the case remained unsolved. In December, NPR reported that a sheriff's spokesperson confirmed the death was being treated as a homicide and remained under investigation, and that "the circumstances of his death remain unclear."
San Fernando is a small, independent city of about two and a half square miles, entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles in the northeast San Fernando Valley. Las Palmas Park is a neighborhood park with ball fields, and on the day Smith was found, according to Kuehl, families and young ballplayers were there.
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 Frederick Smith 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. Someone who spent time in or around Las Palmas Park in early August 2017, or who knew the people Smith spent his days with after he became homeless, may hold the detail that would finally explain what happened to him. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward.
Detectives Dean Camarillo and Eduardo Aguirre of the sheriff's Homicide Bureau asked anyone with information to call 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.
