Donald David Washington

Donald David Washington was 69 years old when he died on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2001, in Leimert Park, in South Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 4249 Degnan. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Southwest 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 69-year-old black male" who "died Saturday, Oct. 6, after being stabbed in Leimert Park." No follow-up story about his death appears to have been published.

Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Donald David Washington 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 a common one. Searches turn up a professional football player born in 1986 who carries the same three names, court cases in Louisiana, and obituaries of other men named Donald Washington in several states. None of them can be connected to the 69-year-old man who died in Leimert Park in 2001.

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.

A man of 69 had lived through most of the twentieth century. He may have had grown children, grandchildren, a long working life and decades of friends and neighbors behind him. None of that has entered the public record, but the people who knew him may still remember him and the weeks before his death.

Leimert Park is a neighborhood of South Los Angeles laid out in the late 1920s as a planned community, with tree-lined streets of Spanish-style homes and a small central plaza. For decades it has been one of the centers of Black cultural life in Los Angeles. Leimert Park Village, the cluster of shops, galleries, restaurants and music venues around Degnan Boulevard and 43rd Street, is known for jazz, poetry, drumming circles and street festivals, and many longtime residents have lived on its quiet side streets for generations.

Homicides in Los Angeles rose sharply in the early 2000s, climbing past 600 in 2002, and detectives carried heavy caseloads. Many killings from those years were never solved.

No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Donald David Washington could be found in news archives or public records. More than 24 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Degnan Boulevard in Leimert Park in early October 2001, or who knew a 69-year-old man named Donald Washington who lived or spent time in the neighborhood, 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 (877-LAPD-24-7), or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).