Trigger Warning: shootings, homicide

Los Angeles, California has one of the highest homeless rates in the United States with an estimated 75,518 people without homes. Only an estimated 20,000 of those people have been able to seek shelter. Unsheltered homelessness in Los Angeles has increased 14 percent from 2022 to 2023. 

The week of November 26, 2023, three homeless men, identified as a 37-year-old man, a 62-year-old, and a 52-year-old, were found shot to death on the streets of Southern Los Angeles in the early morning. The first man was found on November 26, the second man on November 27, and the third man was found on November 29. 

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Micheal Moore has stated that the similarities between these killings are undeniable, but the motive is currently unknown. 

Chief Moore said, “We know that the targeting is three individuals, sleeping alone, houseless, unsheltered, that was, we believe, by the evidence we have, were selected.”

The suspect was identified as 33-year-old Jerrid Joseph Powell. His car was spotted at the sites of all three murders of the homeless men with a handgun, which police determined was “positively identified” as the murder weapon. 

Moore said to ABC News that he does not believe Powell began his habit of killing on Sunday, November 26. He said that he may be responsible for committing robberies, another murder, and other crimes outside of the Los Angeles region.

LAPD suspects that Powell is also responsible for a follow-home killing in San Dimas, California, as the same vehicle and handgun were linked to the murder of a 42-year-old father of two, Nicholas Simbolon. 

Police determined that the murder of Simbolon was not associated with his employment with the County as a project manager in the I.T. department for the Los Angeles Chief Executive Executive Office. 

He was followed home from a charging station in West Covina to San Dimas, robbed, and shot. Simbolon died on the scene. 

A license plate reader found Powell’s vehicle at a stoplight in Beverly Hills on November 29. He was held in police custody the next day with a $2.1 million bail. 

“Had they not had access to those tools, this individual, I am convinced, would still be moving about the city, in the region, and killing individuals, innocent individuals, helpless individuals,” Moore said. 

“Based on his criminal history, he didn’t just start doing this a week ago. So, this is why we’re using you as a partner to make sure that with his picture and this information if anybody believes that they may have been a victim of a crime and this individual perpetrated it, you need to contact us right away,” Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna told ABC News in regards to the possibility of there being other victims.