Warren Wilson Dies: Trailblazing Black LA Journalist Was 90

Warren Wilson, one of the first Black broadcast journalists in Los Angeles, has died. He was 90.

The former KTLA reporter died on Friday, Wilson’s family announced in a statement shared with the outlet, where he worked for more than 20 years starting in 1984.

“Our beloved father Warren Wilson ‘Papa’ died Friday, September 27th, 2024 in Oxnard, California,” they announced in the statement. “He was 90. His demeanor on the air as an iconic television journalist was just as authentic as he was a father, unsensational, sincere, a voice calming and eloquent.”

After beginning his LA on-air news career in the ’60s, Wilson went on to report some of the city’s most significant moments of the past century, including the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the 1969 Manson family killings, the 1992 LA riots, the 1995 OJ Simpson trial and the 1997 North Hollywood Bank of America shootout. He earned multiple awards for his work, including several Emmy Awards and a Peabody.

Wilson was known for helping facilitate the safe surrender of multiple minorities accused of crimes. “I guess I can identify with the underdog because of what I’ve had to go through as a Black man working in a white world,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1993. “I take some pride in thinking that maybe someone — a suspect or a police officer — stayed alive because of all this.”

His fellow KTLA reporter Eric Spillman remembered him as “a trusted reporter,” adding, “He was brave. During the riots, Warren went down to the South L.A. area and interviewed a shop owner who was trying to put out flames while standing on the roof of a burning building. I will never forget that.”

Wilson is survived by six children and a stepdaughter.