On Tuesday, November 28 at 6:07 p.m., a 36-year-old woman named Jameelah Elena Michl knocked on an apartment door in midtown Los Angeles. The apartment belonged to Michael Latt, a social justice advocate who worked in the film industry. Latt’s fiancé opened the door. Michl said she was a friend of Latt and wanted to give him a book. Michl then burst past Latt’s fiancé into the apartment and found Latt in the living room. She pointed a semi-automatic handgun at Latt and fired several shots. One shot hit Latt in the head, another in the chest. Latt’s fiancé ran for help. While a neighbor called 911, Michl remained in the apartment until police arrived. She was arrested without incident while paramedics tried to save Latt. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The murder occurred directly across the street from where I live. I didn’t learn about it until the following evening when I came home to find several news vans on the street. A KTLA reporter told me about the murder and then pointed to the nice-looking building I’d walked past hundreds of times. I didn’t know Latt or his fiancé. But I immediately felt sickened. The fact someone was killed 200 feet from where I live filled me with anxiety.
My wife and I Googled the incident. The Los Angeles Times posted a front-page article with several definitive conclusions. The murder was “random.” The victim “did not know” the murderer. The killer was a “homeless woman who lived in her car.” The killer drove a “high-end car.” Given the killer’s name Jameelah, we assumed she was black but there was no mention of her ethnicity. (This was likely a factor in the killer’s motive.)
What concerned us most was the arbitrary nature of the murder. If the killing was in fact random, it could’ve happened to anyone. The “fact” the murderer was homeless dominated news headlines. Our neighborhood is dotted with homeless people. In August 2022, a homeless man entered a furniture store on La Brea Avenue and stabbed a 24-year-old female clerk to death. I’ve not encountered any violent homeless people in our area but I know others who have.
Neighbors convened after the murder to share information. Many knew Latt and his fiancé. I heard differing opinions but there was agreement on several facts. One, the murder was not random. “They knew each other,” the woman next door said. Two, the woman was not homeless and didn’t live in her car. “She lived in an apartment in Hollywood,” another neighbor said. Three, she didn’t drive a high-end car. “It was a green Toyota Yaris,” a man up the block said. “I saw police towing the car away.”
As the days passed, more information came out. Latt was a marketing director who championed films by people of color such as The Birth of a Nation and I Am Not Your Negro. He worked for Imagine Justice, a non-profit founded by Common advocating for prison reform. He founded his own company Lead With Love seeking to affect social change.
The murderer’s connection to Latt was obscure. Michl worked as an extra on the film A Thousand and One directed by A.V Rockwell, a black female filmmaker. Michl became obsessed with Rockwell and sent threatening letters to her, including one that said, “My Glock is loaded as I write this.” Rockwell filed a restraining order. Latt and Rockwell were friends and he posted photos with her on his Instagram page. It’s likely the photos triggered Michl to target Latt. At the least, the images show a link between Michl and Latt proving the murder was not random.
The Times corrected the record and reported the connection between Michl and Latt. But they continued writing that Michl was homeless and lived in her car. They never mentioned that Michl was black despite Latt’s relationship with the black community. Most news outlets continue reporting the murder was “random” committed by a “homeless woman living in her car.” This feels like a conscious agenda to blame the homeless for the ills of Los Angeles.
The murder has shaken everyone on our street. But I still feel protected. On the day of the incident, my wife and I were teaching two art classes in Pasadena. While driving to the first location, our car transmission gave out. We pulled into the parking lot, taught our first class, canceled the second class, and then called Auto Club. A flat-bed truck arrived and our car was secured on deck. Then we noticed the truck had a flat tire. A second truck was called causing a one-hour delay. The tow driver took us to our repair facility deep in the San Fernando Valley and the shop gave us a loaner. This meant instead of arriving home at six p.m., the time we would’ve arrived without car problems, we didn’t get home until after eight. Our car troubles caused us not to be home when the murder occurred.
I’ve gotten closer with my neighbors these past weeks. The neighbor who knows the most about the incident is a woman I see walking her dog every morning. She’s also a black filmmaker. I asked her opinion on why Michl murdered Latt.
“Michl was black,” she said. “Latt was white but he supported black filmmakers. When Latt posted that Instagram pic with A.V. Rockwell, Michl blamed Latt for helping another black filmmaker’s career, but not her own.”
“But she was only a film extra,” I said.
“Who knows what was going on in her head. She was crazy and obsessed.”
All the neighbors I’ve spoken with agree the murder has nothing to do with homelessness or race. It has everything to do with mental illness. How this issue can be dealt with this is anyone’s guess.