RESEDA : Officials Visit Wary Residents Near Crime Site

Since a recent brutal attack on a 74-year-old neighbor, elderly residents of Strathern Street in Reseda are on edge. Although they live behind barred windows and chain-link fences, they are hesitant to open their doors to strangers, even when the callers are a Los Angeles City Council representative and a uniformed officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.

This is the neighborhood where Edith Aline Rose, an elderly woman who lived alone, was stabbed 20 times, handcuffed to a drainpipe and robbed of less than $10. A 17-year-old youth who lived nearby has been arrested and charged with attempted murder and other crimes in connection with the stabbing.

Rose, a well-known and well-liked figure in the neighborhood who was often seen working in her garden, is in stable condition at a local hospital. She is expected to recover from her wounds, authorities said.

In an attempt to allay fears in the the neighborhood and create a safer place to live, Councilwoman Laura Chick on Wednesday teamed up with Senior Lead Officer Mark Pryor to walk door-to-door in Rose’s neighborhood to drum up enthusiasm for a Neighborhood Watch program.

“One of the neighbors just told me that this kid (the suspect) would hang around here in the summer flashing his flashlight into people’s houses,” Chick said. If there had been a Neighborhood Watch in place, she said, the crimes could have been prevented.

“Neighborhood Watches are our eyes and ears,” Pryor said. One of the duties of senior lead officers is to promote such community organizations in their areas.

Pointing to a squad car patrolling the area, Pryor said, “If we had been notified, we could have let these officers find out what the problem is.”

Explaining why she is promoting a Neighborhood Watch group, Chick said, “People are more apt to step forward or take action as a group more than they would by themselves.”

Chick and Pryor recruited one of Rose’s neighbors, Jim Hanson, to join them as they made their rounds in the neighborhood. Hanson said he had been thinking about establishing a neighborhood watch even before the incident.