A 40-year-old man was stabbed to death inside an apartment on South Vermont Avenue in Vermont Knolls on Thursday night, according to police. Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to an apartment unit at 8848 South Vermont, Suite 302, around 9:43 p.m. and found the man suffering from stab wounds. Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel also responded and pronounced him dead at the scene.
The stabbing was first reported by MyNewsLA.com, which cited an LAPD spokesperson in detailing the timeline of officers' response. Police said the man was not homeless and told the outlet the stabbing was not believed to be gang-related. Beyond that, LAPD said no further information was immediately available as of Friday.
Which LAPD Units Are Investigating
The property falls within the jurisdiction of the LAPD's 77th Street Community Police Station, which patrols 11.9 square miles and serves roughly 175,000 residents across Vermont Knolls and Chesterfield Square, per information published by LAPD Online. The 77th Street station itself is located at 7600 South Broadway. Homicide inquiries in that footprint, however, are led by the LAPD's South Bureau Homicide Division, a specialized unit that investigates more than 40 percent of all homicides committed citywide.
Anyone with information about the Vermont Knolls stabbing can contact South Bureau Homicide detectives at (323) 786-5100, or submit tips anonymously through L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.
A Pattern Along the Vermont Avenue Corridor
This is not the first knife-related killing reported along the Vermont Avenue corridor this year. In July, Hoodline reported on a deadly street fight near 64th Street and Vermont Avenue in the adjacent Vermont-Slauson neighborhood, in which the attacker fled before police arrived. And in March, homicide detectives investigated another fatal incident in Vermont Knolls on the 1100 block of West 87th Street, just west of Vermont Avenue, according to MyNewsLA.com.
The pattern comes even as citywide homicide numbers have fallen sharply. Official LAPD statistics released this year showed homicides citywide dropped 19 percent in 2025 compared to 2024, reaching the lowest annual total since 1966. Still, localized violent crime calls have continued along pockets of South LA like the Vermont Avenue corridor even as the broader citywide trend has improved. Historical crime mapping from Crosstown LA previously showed the 77th Street Division recording 46 homicides in a single year, among the highest concentrations of any of the city's 21 LAPD community divisions.
As of Friday, LAPD said no further information was immediately available. Should a suspect eventually be identified and charged, California Penal Code Section 187 defines murder as an unlawful killing committed with malice aforethought, carrying a sentence of 15 years to life for second-degree murder or 25 years to life for first-degree murder.
