Jacob Alexander Guillen was 21 years old when he was found stabbed on Thursday, September 10, 2015, in Westlake, just west of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 600 block of South Lafayette Park Place. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's West Bureau Homicide unit.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 21-year-old white man" and gave a short account of how he was found. "About 4:35 a.m., police were called to the Lafayette Recreation Center and found Guillen with stab wounds. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene, and detectives are looking for anyone who may have been driving or walking in the area and may have seen something."
The lead detective was candid about how little was known. "We don't know that much yet," LAPD Det.
John Skaggs told the Times, adding that police had "interviewed several witnesses but need more information." The fact that there were witnesses to interview suggests that other people were in or near the park in the early morning hours, though the record does not say what any of them saw.
An online memorial page gives a few more facts about his life. It lists Jacob Alexander Guillen as born on May 17, 1994, in California, and as having passed away on September 10, 2015, in Los Angeles, at 21 years old. The name, the age and the date all match the coroner's record. The memorial's public summary does not describe how he died, and it does not name family members, a school or a job. Still, it shows that people who loved him wanted his life remembered. Several other men named Jacob Guillen appear in obituaries and records elsewhere, none of whom are connected to this death.
The record does not say why he was at the park so early in the morning, whether he lived nearby, whether he knew the person who stabbed him, or whether anything was taken from him.
Lafayette Park is one of the older public parks in Los Angeles, a green space in the dense Westlake neighborhood a short distance west of MacArthur Park. Its recreation center serves the many families who live in the apartment buildings around it. Westlake is one of the most crowded neighborhoods in the city, home to many working-class and immigrant families, and it is patrolled by the LAPD's Rampart Division. Even before dawn, the streets around the park see buses, delivery trucks and people heading to early shifts.
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 arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Jacob Alexander Guillen could be found in news archives or public records. More than ten years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was driving or walking near Lafayette Park and South Lafayette Park Place before dawn on September 10, 2015, or who knew a 21-year-old named Jacob Guillen and saw him the night before, may hold information that could help detectives. The Times asked anyone with information to call West Bureau homicide investigators at 382-9470. 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.
