Santa Monica Police may have saved the life of a resident being chased by a homeless person brandishing two large knives.
Robert Smith, 43, was taken into custody near the intersection on Lincoln Boulevard and Hill Street after chasing a male victim through late night traffic.
The scary incident occurred just after 2:00 a.m. on July 3 when an SMPD cruiser noticed multiple cars stopped in the intersection.
The officer observed a male victim being chased by another subject across Lincoln Blvd, swerving in and out of the stopped vehicles.
The male suspect was running with two large knives, one in each hand, still chasing the victim. The officer immediately intervened and ordered the suspect to drop the weapons. The suspect complied; however, the officer located a third knife in the suspect’s waistband when taking him into custody.
The suspect…was transported to the Santa Monica Jail where he was booked for 245(a)(1) PC – Assault with a Deadly Weapon, 417(a)(1) – Brandishing, 21310 PC – Carrying a Concealed Dirk or Dagger, and 422 PC- Criminal Threats. The City Attorney filed all charges.
The scary incident took place just 24 hours after a couple was attacked by another homeless person in a Santa Monica city-operated parking garage near 2nd Street and Colorado Avenue.
City Council member Phil Brock has used the uptick in crime to speak out about the need for greater state and national programs for the homeless.
“We have to combine the need to make sure our streets, alleys, parks are safe here, and parking structures in this case, with also the need to make sure our unhoused population get into housing, get the services they need,” Brock told KCBS News this week.
“The help they need also needs to be provided in Jackson, Mississippi, and Charlotte, North Carolina, and Des Moines, Iowa. Their cities have to provide help too. Right now it seems it’s all on Santa Monica, Los Angeles and LA County and we can’t do enough quickly enough to solve the problems in our cities.”
But so far the Santa Monica city government has not made any efforts to deter the unhoused population from taking over the city.
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