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.