Man’s Headless Body Found in Trash Bin

The headless body of a man was found stuffed in a trash bin Thursday at a southwest Los Angeles apartment complex, police said.

The body, which was of a black man, was jammed into a plastic trash container in an alley in the 4000 block of Buckingham Road near Palmyra Road. The container was one of about a dozen behind the complex.

A resident found the body about 3:30 p.m. as he tried to move the trash container and noticed that it was unusually heavy, said Los Angeles Police Det. Brent Josephson of the Southwest Division.

Police had not determined how the man was killed or how long the body had been in the trash bin, Josephson said. About 7:30 p.m., a bloodhound unit arrived to search for the head and to trace where the body came from.

Victor Ahaiwe, owner of a nearby store, said he gave police a videotape from a camera he installed in the alley about a year ago in response to crime around his business.

“I’m robbed about 50 times a year,” Ahaiwe said.

The area where the body was found is known as Baldwin Village, but some residents call it by its former name, “the Jungle.” The tough neighborhood was featured in the finale of the Denzel Washington movie “Training Day.”

More than 300 apartment buildings and 10,000 residents share the space at the foot of the Baldwin Hills near the Crenshaw district. The City Council voted in 1988 to change the neighborhood’s name to shed its crime-tainted image.