Willie Ray Battle was 58 years old when he died on Thursday, August 28, 2003. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 2836 E. Walnut St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Pasadena Police Department case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 58-year-old black male" who "died Thursday, Aug. 28, after being stabbed in Walnut Park." The entry gave a street address, but it did not say whether he lived there, whether he was attacked there or whether that was simply where he was found. No follow-up story about his death appears to have been published.
There is a puzzle in the record. The Times placed the death in Walnut Park, an unincorporated community in southeast Los Angeles County that is patrolled by the Sheriff's Department.
Yet the case was assigned to the Pasadena Police Department, and Pasadena has its own East Walnut Street. That suggests the address may in fact have been in or near Pasadena and that the neighborhood label may have been entered in error, though the record does not explain the difference.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Willie Ray Battle 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. Searches for his name turn up other men called Willie Battle in Georgia, Texas, Florida and Louisiana, along with a man of the same full name who appeared as a witness in old California court cases, but none of them can be tied to this 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.
If the address was in Pasadena, it lay in a city of about 135,000 people at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, known for the Rose Parade, the Rose Bowl, the California Institute of Technology and its older residential neighborhoods. Pasadena runs its own police department, which handles homicides inside the city limits.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Willie Ray Battle could be found in news archives or public records. More than 22 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 58-year-old man named Willie Battle in Pasadena or southeast Los Angeles County, or who was near the 2800 block of East Walnut Street in late August 2003, 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 contact the Pasadena Police Department or the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
