Larry Kyle Perkins was 47 years old when he was found dead early on Monday, January 17, 2011, on the eastern edge of downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds in the 700 block of Kohler Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles Police Department's Newton Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 47-year-old white man." He "was discovered stabbed on the street near a post office about 12:30 a.m.," said LAPD Newton Detective Leonardo McKenzie, who handled the case. Paramedics were called, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. McKenzie told the Times that "investigators do not have a description of the assailant and do not know the circumstances that led up to Perkins' death."
An Associated Press report carried by CBS Los Angeles said the body of a homeless man "has been found with multiple stab wounds outside a post office near downtown
Los Angeles' Skid Row area," and that postal police found him. Coroner's Lt. Joe Bale identified him as "47-year-old Larry Kyle Perkins, a transient." LA Weekly, writing in May 2011, reported that he had stab wounds to his neck and torso and that he "had been attacked outside the post office at 1122 East 2nd Street," where it meets Kohler Street. "His attacker and the weapon used in the murder, however, were long gone," the paper wrote.
Records of the Los Angeles City Clerk show that in February 2011 a motion was filed with the City Council concerning the person or persons "responsible for the death of Larry Perkins, a resident of the City of Los Angeles, on January 17, 2011." Motions worded this way are typically used to offer a reward for information, which suggests the city may have offered one in his case, but the saved record does not give an amount.
Beyond these reports, little about his life has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story. Larry Perkins is also a common name, and searches turn up many other men who share it, none of whom can be tied to this death. Like many people living on the streets, he may have had family who lost touch with him, but none of that has entered the public record.
The area around 2nd and Kohler streets lies just east of Skid Row, where thousands of homeless people live in shelters, single-room hotels and tents along the sidewalks. The surrounding blocks are largely industrial, with warehouses, wholesale businesses and loading docks that are quiet late at night.
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 Larry Kyle Perkins could be found in news archives or public records. More than 14 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who spent time near the post office at 2nd and Kohler streets in January 2011, or who knew a homeless man named Larry in that part of downtown, 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. At the time, the Times asked anyone with information to contact Detective McKenzie at (323) 846-6556. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 (877-LAPD-24-7), or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
