Harrell Slade was 62 years old when he died on Thursday, July 12, 2012, in Historic South-Central Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 230 W. 23rd St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Newton Division case.
The coroner's records describe him as a Black man. The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence, saying that he "died Thursday, July 12, after being stabbed in Historic South-Central, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records." No account of what happened was ever added to the entry. It did not say whether he was stabbed on the day he died or earlier, and it gave no quotes from detectives, family members or neighbors.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Harrell Slade 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. His name is fairly unusual, which makes the silence more striking. Searches turned up public-records listings for a man of that name in Los Angeles, along with a few people elsewhere who carry Harrell and Slade as parts of their names, but nothing that tells his story or describes his 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.
At 62, he was older than most people who die by violence in Los Angeles. The record does not say whether the address was his home, the home of someone he knew, a business or a place he was passing through.
Historic South-Central is a neighborhood just south of downtown Los Angeles, one of the oldest residential areas of the city. Its streets mix older houses and apartment buildings with small factories, garment businesses, warehouses and shops, and many of its residents are working-class families. The area is patrolled by the LAPD's Newton Division, which covers a large part of the industrial and residential land south and southeast of downtown.
Homicides in Los Angeles fell steeply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, yet many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Harrell Slade could be found in news archives or public records. More than 13 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 62-year-old man named Harrell Slade, or who lived or worked near the 200 block of West 23rd Street in July 2012, may hold information that could help detectives. 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.
