Omar Hassan Leverett was 32 years old when he died on Sunday, January 15, 2006, in downtown Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 1315 S. Flower Street. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Central Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 32-year-old black male" who "died Sunday, Jan. 15, after being stabbed in Downtown." That short entry, drawn from coroner's records, is nearly the whole of the public record on his death.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Omar Hassan Leverett has been confirmed in public. No news outlet appears to have reported on the death, and no memorial page or family fundraiser could be found that clearly belongs to him. One possible trace exists.
A 2021 obituary from Portsmouth, Virginia, for a woman named Toba Jean Leverett says that she was "preceded in death by her son, Omar Leverett." Nothing in that obituary mentions Los Angeles or how her son died, so it cannot be confirmed that it refers to the man killed downtown. If it does, it would suggest that he had roots in Virginia and a mother who outlived him by 15 years.
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.
Leverett is not a common surname, and the full name Omar Hassan Leverett is distinctive, which should make him easier to remember for anyone who knew him. That makes the silence around his death all the more striking.
South Flower Street runs through the southern part of downtown Los Angeles, an area of office buildings, parking lots, apartments, warehouses and older commercial buildings that was only beginning a period of heavy redevelopment in 2006. The Los Angeles Convention Center and the arena then known as Staples Center stood nearby, drawing large crowds on event nights, while other blocks were quiet after business hours. Downtown streets also carry a steady flow of people at all hours, including residents, workers, visitors and people without stable housing, so someone may well have seen or heard something that day.
Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Omar Hassan Leverett could be found in news archives or public records. More than 19 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on or near South Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles in January 2006, or who knew Omar Leverett in Los Angeles or Virginia, 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 (877-LAPD-24-7), or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
