Rodney Mark Steptoe was 53 years old when he was fatally stabbed on Wednesday, April 5, 2017, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 4700 block of 6th Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Southwest Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 53-year-old black man" and, unlike many entries, gave an account of what police believed happened. "Shortly before 4 a.m., Steptoe got into an argument with his 66-year-old brother inside their home, Los Angeles Police Det. Dave Garrido said." According to the Times, "Police said that Steptoe approached his brother while wielding a box cutter. The brother then grabbed a cane sword and stabbed Steptoe in the torso." He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:02 a.m., according to coroner's records.
The case did not go to court.
The Times reported that "The brother was taken into police custody but released two days later," and that "The Los Angeles County district attorney's office declined to file charges against the brother because of 'insufficient evidence,' according to a spokesman for the office." The brother's name was not made public. The police account, in which Steptoe was the first to raise a blade, suggests that self-defense may have been part of the decision, but the district attorney's office did not say that. It cited only a lack of evidence, and no court ever weighed what happened in the house that morning.
That leaves the death in an uncertain place. The coroner ruled it a homicide, which means it was caused by another person, not that a crime was proven. No one was charged, and no public finding has said whether the stabbing was justified.
Little else about Rodney Steptoe's life has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found. A Facebook group created to remember alumni of University High School in West Los Angeles lists a Rodney Steptoe from the Class of 1981, which would fit his age, but it could not be confirmed that this was the same man. He surely had friends and relatives who remember him beyond the few lines in the police account.
Hyde Park is a residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles, near Crenshaw Boulevard and Florence Avenue. Its streets are lined mostly with modest single-family homes, many of them built in the first half of the twentieth century, and it borders the better known Leimert Park area.
By the mid-2010s Los Angeles was recording roughly 250 to 300 homicides a year, among the lowest totals in decades, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.
No criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Rodney Mark Steptoe 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 knew the household on 6th Avenue in Hyde Park in April 2017, or who heard what happened that morning, may hold information that could help investigators. In 2017, police asked anyone with information to call the Criminal Gang Homicide Division at 786-5113. 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.
