Brent Meldeau’s trip to the Chatsworth Metro station on March 2 turned out to be a nightmare. Just after sunset, he was attacked by a homeless man with a machete near the station’s parking lot. The incident left him with a scar down the left side of his face. Meldeau is now suing Metro, claiming that the group failed to keep the area safe.
According to Meldeau’s claim, the station’s parking lot was not safeguarded properly by Metro, despite being situated just yards from a massive homeless encampment. The encampment is several hundred feet from the station off Devonshire Street, and the station has poor lighting and no security cameras.
Meldeau’s lawsuit comes after more than a dozen calls to the LAPD reporting crimes in the area this year alone. Crimes range from disturbances to assaults, including a fatal stabbing on a Metro Blue Line train in Long Beach and another stabbing on a Metro Red Line train in Hollywood. With the increasing number of crimes, Meldeau’s lawsuit hopes to push Metro to take necessary action and improve the safety of the Chatsworth station and other stations like it.
The man who attacked Meldeau has not been arrested yet. Meldeau says that with his scar as a daily reminder of the attack, he’s concerned that it’s only a matter of time before someone else falls victim to the station’s unsafe conditions.
