Chatsworth Machete Attack Survivor Has Warning For Neighbors

CHATSWORTH, CA — It was dark out but not particularly late when Brent Meldeau got off the train at the Chatsworth Metro Station on a Thursday evening in early March, so he didn’t give much thought to his safety as he walked through the shadowed parking lot while texting a friend.

He barely saw what hit him.

“I hear someone approaching me, and I see this guy with his hand in the air,” Meldeau said. “The dude hits me across the face with a machete.”

Meldeau wasn’t sure what was happening, but he realized that someone was trying to kill him.

“He struck to kill,” Meldeau said. “He hit me across the face with the blade.”

Cut and bleeding, Meldeau had to react fast.

“I was in shock,” said the 53-year-old inventor. “I dropped my phone. As I was running away, he asked me if I wanted some more."

“It knocked me nearly unconscious. I saw stars. I was discombobulated. All of a sudden that adrenaline races through your heart,” added Meldeau.

Meldeau made it into the nearby Ralphs store on Devonshire Street and asked for help. An ambulance and the police arrived, but his attacker had already fled.

It’s been more than two weeks since the March 2 attack, and Meldeau still bears the gash across his cheek attesting to the random violence. His attacker, however, remains at large in the community. Meldeau said he has since seen the man coming and going from the homeless encampment on the city property next to the Chatsworth Metro Station on Devonshire Street.

Even as his wound begins to heal, his frustration grows.

Meldeau filed a police report and called the detective handling the case a few days later when he saw his attacker go into a blue tarp tent next to the Metro station parking lot. He described the attacker as a tall, slender man with a black beard.

For Meldeau, the situation has come to encapsulate the inaction that has changed the Chatsworth of his childhood into a place that no longer feels safe to him or his neighbors.

“I’m traumatized, and I just don’t think it’s fair that he can not be caught,” Meldeau said. “I have a false sense of security because it’s the town I grew up in, but it’s not the same town. The city lets these homeless people on drugs camp here and get violent toward citizens.”

Los Angeles City Councilman John Lee, who represents Chatsworth, and his spokesperson did not return calls or emails for this story.

The city has a fraught relationship with its homeless encampments.

Neighbors fed up with crime, safety, trash or sanitation issues tied to the homeless encampments have urged community leaders to purge the encampments. Such efforts, however, frequently lead to accusations of criminalizing homelessness and violating the rights of unhoused residents.

In Chatsworth, the Los Angeles Police Department has conducted cleanup efforts and arrested people with outstanding warrants at the Chatsworth Metro Station encampment, according to LAPD Lieutenant Nick Nemece.

Detectives are investigating the attack on Meldeau, he said.

It’s not the only crime involving a machete at the Chatsworth Metro station in recent months, according to the LAPD.

Detectives have identified a second “instance where a machete was used in a threatening manner,” said Nemece.

However, the suspect description in that case differs from the person who attacked Meldeau, he added. The cases aren’t believed to be connected, said Nemece.

LAPD Devonshire detectives are asking for additional tips or information leading to Meldeau’s attacker.

“LAPD Devonshire Area is asking witnesses who can provide any information, video or other evidence related to the attack to come forward,” said Nemece. "Anyone with further information regarding this matter may contact the Devonshire Area Crimes Against Persons Detectives at (818) 832-0609. During non-business hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (1-877-527-3247). Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call the L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS."

For his part, Meldeau said he wants people to be careful around the Chatsworth Metro Station encampments and his attacker caught before someone else gets hurt.

“The crime is out of hand down in that area,” he said. “I don’t want anyone else to have to go through what happened to me."