Rashid Vanee Hill was 22 years old when he died on Tuesday, August 9, 2005, in South Park, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 139 E. 52nd St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the Newton Division.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report described him as "a 22-year-old black male" who "died Tuesday, Aug. 9, after being stabbed in South Park." A website that republishes coroner's records also lists the death of "a 22-year-old Black male that occurred in a hospital," identified as Rashid Hill, under coroner's case number 2005-06076. That entry suggests he was still alive when he was taken for treatment and died later at a hospital, although it does not name the hospital or say how long he survived.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he was hurt, almost nothing about Rashid Hill 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.
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 anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Rashid Hill is not an especially rare name, and searches turned up several others who share it, including a high school basketball player in Pennsylvania and a young man named in a Florida obituary. None of them can be connected to the man who died in South Los Angeles.
South Park is a residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles, east of the Harbor Freeway and south of downtown, made up largely of older single-family homes, duplexes and small apartment buildings. East 52nd Street is a residential street in that grid, a few blocks from the busy commercial corridors of Main Street and Avalon Boulevard. The record gives a street address, which suggests he may have been hurt at or near a home, though it does not say whether he lived there.
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 Rashid Vanee Hill could be found in news archives or public records. More than 20 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Rashid Hill, or who was on or near East 52nd Street in South Park in early August 2005, may hold information that could help investigators. 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).
