Miguel Angel Rodriguez was 21 years old when he died on Sunday, March 16, 2014, in the Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after being stabbed near the corner of Desmond Street and Oneida Avenue. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Foothill Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 21-year-old Latino male" who "died Sunday, March 16, after being stabbed in Pacoima." The entry gave an intersection rather than a street address, which suggests he was found outdoors or that police recorded the nearest corner, but it did not say whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. No follow-up story appears to have been written.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Miguel Angel Rodriguez 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. Miguel Angel Rodriguez is also a very common name in Southern California and across the Spanish-speaking world, and searches turn up many other men who share it. Among them is a man of the same name sought by the Los Angeles Police Department for a 1997 shooting, when this victim was a small child. None of them can be tied to this death.
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.
Pacoima is one of the oldest communities in the northeast San Fernando Valley, a largely working-class neighborhood of single-family homes, small businesses and churches. It is known as the boyhood home of the rock and roll singer Ritchie Valens, and in recent decades for its large outdoor murals. Whiteman Airport, a small general aviation field, lies within its boundaries. The area is patrolled by the Los Angeles Police Department's Foothill Division.
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 Miguel Angel Rodriguez could be found in news archives or public records. More than 11 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived near Desmond Street and Oneida Avenue in Pacoima in March 2014, or who knew a 21-year-old man named Miguel Angel Rodriguez who died that month, may hold information 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. 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.
