A young construction worker angry at the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles has been charged with the the murder of murder of a petty thief and heroin addict, prosecutors say.
Vincent Wolf, 23, ranted on Instagram about homeless people before he was charged with shooting dead Travis Harker, 29, on August 5th, in the San Fernando Valley.
Wolf, who lived with his mother and aunt in a apartment complex off Foothill Boulevard next to a rundown RV encampment, made numerous posts about the homeless.
“They s**t and piss on the street,” Wolf wrote on Instagram in August, according to the police search warrant affidavit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in August.
“They do drugs in the middle of the night. They f***ing screamed for no reason. And most importantly violent.
“It’s all corrupt politicians left nor right,” Wolf wrote, according to the affidavit,
“Elderly people in the young don’t deserve none of this.”
Prosecutors alleged it was these feelings about the homeless outside his second-floor apartment that drove him to an act of violence.
When he was first arrested, Wolf told police he killed Harker in self-defense, the LA Times reported.
But when he was told there was surveillance footage, he changed his story.
Los Angeles Police Det. Benyamin Sadeh, who investigated the homicide, told the LA Times that Harker was a heroin addict known to break into parked cars.
Sadeh said Wolf told police that Harker had threatened to stab him and his dog.
But police said that video from a nearby business showed Harker was only fiddling with something on a table outside the RV when Wolf came around the side and fired a shot at him.
Sadeh said “No words were exchanged. The victim didn’t even see it coming.”
The detective obtained a warrant for Wolf’s Instagram record which revealed things he had written about the homelessness he was seeing in the city.
“Like there isn’t a whole a** homeless man s***ing on the ground as you pass by” and “Where can I get one to kick the homeless out of my neighborhood?”
Wolf has pleaded not guilty to murder.
There are about 72,000 homeless people in LA County, according to 2025 data from the LA Homeless Services Authority.
There’s also 6,290 RVs being used as makeshift dwellings.
The California Post reached out to the LA District Attorney’s office said they couldn’t comment on the case because it was ongoing.
The Post also contacted Wolf’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Ralf Jacobsen, and the LAPD for further information.