Commerce Boy, 14, Missing Since Tuesday Morning, Deputies Ask Public for Help

A 14-year-old boy with no history of running away has been missing since Tuesday morning from the City of Commerce, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is now asking the public for help finding him. Miguel Angel Rodriguez was last seen around 6:50 a.m. on the 7000 block of Neenah Street, wearing an unknown-colored t-shirt and white Jordan shoes. His family says they are very concerned for his well-being.

According to a special bulletin issued by LA County Sheriffs, Miguel is described as a Hispanic male, 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds, with brown curly hair and brown eyes. Detectives note he has no known medical conditions and no pattern of running away, details that carry legal weight under state law. The bulletin, created by East Los Angeles Detective Bureau Detective F. Mendoza, was signed by Sheriff Robert G. Luna and dated Monday, August 24, 2026.

Why Miguel Was Immediately Classified 'At-Risk'

Because Miguel has no history of disappearing and shows no signs of foul play, medical need, or impairment on record, California law still allowed deputies to designate him an at-risk missing juvenile — a category defined under Penal Code Section 14215, which covers people who lack a pattern of running away, may be victims of foul play, or need immediate medical attention or have a mental or physical impairment, according to state law cited by Justia Law. That designation triggers stricter procedural requirements than an ordinary missing person case.

Under Penal Code Section 14211, local agencies like the Sheriff's Department cannot impose any waiting period before taking a missing person report, and at-risk cases must be electronically transmitted to the state's Missing Persons System through CLETS within two hours of receipt, per language tracked by LegiScan. From there, the California Department of Justice's guidelines require those CLETS entries to automatically synchronize with the National Crime Information Center and the state's Violent Crime Information Center, according to the California Department of Justice, pushing Miguel's case into federal and statewide law enforcement networks within hours of the report.

Local Deputies Lean on Countywide Resources

The search is being led out of the LASD's East Los Angeles Station, which provides contract policing for the City of Commerce with 32 deputies and one sergeant covering roughly 12,500 residents — a number that swells past 43,000 during the workday because of the area's dense industrial base, per the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Commerce itself covers just 6.53 square miles in southeast Los Angeles County, with a resident population of 12,378 that is 97% Hispanic or Latino, according to data compiled by the Los Angeles Almanac.

Investigations of this kind are not handled by the local station alone. Missing person cases across LASD's contract cities are centrally supported by the department's Homicide Bureau Missing Persons Detail, based in Monterey Park, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department notes, giving East Los Angeles detectives access to specialized investigators as the search continues.

How the Public Can Help

The Sheriff's Department is pushing the case out through multiple channels, including Nixle text and email alerts powered by Everbridge, which residents can activate by texting their zip code to 888777, along with Crime Stoppers and the P3 Tips app for anonymous tips. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective F. Mendoza or the on-duty Watch Commander at the East Los Angeles Detective Bureau, 5019 East 3rd Street, at (323) 264-4151. Tips can also be submitted anonymously to Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS (8477) or through lacrimestoppers.org.

No Statewide Alert — For Now

No AMBER Alert has been issued in Miguel's case, and under Government Code Section 8594, that statewide broadcast tool is legally restricted to confirmed child abductions where law enforcement believes the child faces imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death, according to guidance from the California Highway Patrol. Short of that threshold, the CHP's Emergency Notification and Tactical Alert Center can issue a broader Endangered Missing Advisory for at-risk individuals who don't meet AMBER Alert criteria, though it remains unclear whether deputies will request one if the current search does not turn up leads. It is also not yet known whether investigators have recovered any surveillance footage from the Neenah Street area.

The case echoes another recent East Los Angeles Station missing-juvenile search, after a 10-year-old girl vanished near Dennison just days earlier, underscoring how frequently the station's detectives are activating the same statewide reporting machinery for the city's youngest residents.