Neighbors grow concerned after assault of librarian
MAIN STREET — The head librarian of the Ocean Park Library was assaulted last week by a homeless man who spent the majority of his time sitting outside the facility, sources said.
Celia Carroll was outside of the library, 2601 Main St., on March 16 at 5:35 p.m. when she was attacked by Melvin Winston Hardy, 39, a transient, police said.
Apparently, Carroll was talking to Hardy near the bus stop on Main Street in front of the library. As she walked away from him, he pushed her from the back, causing her to fall forward. Carroll sustained a laceration to her face when she feel to the ground. Santa Monica Police arrested Hardy and booked him for assault and battery. His bail was set at $5,000. He is being held in the men’s central jail in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Carroll is recuperating at her Santa Monica home and is expected to return to work on Monday.
Carroll, who also had been the head librarian at the Fairview Library in Sunset Park, is known by many in the community, particularly because of her dedicated volunteerism in the school system. Those who know her describe her as gentle, kind and polite.
E-mail messages among residents in the Ocean Park neighborhood are testament to the shock by many people that Carroll could be attacked during the day at the library. In their e-mail dialogue, residents also raised concerns that there isn’t enough security at the city’s libraries, where many transients congregate.
“Celia is a beacon of this community; she is the person that everyone knows,” said Joel Brand, an Ocean Park resident and the vice president of the Ocean Park Association, a neighborhood group. “And if something like this happens to someone like her, it shakes the community to the roots.”
Main Street, like many neighborhoods in Santa Monica, has a fair amount of homeless people loitering, primarily because of its close proximity to the beach and parks. Typically, the associated problems resulting from the homeless have been quality of life issues, such as public urination and defecation, public drunkenness and audible ranting and raving. But last week’s assault has woken residents up to a new reality.
“It raises serious concerns of the city’s ability to police public spaces,” Brand said. “It’s unfortunate that it takes something like this to raise the issue.”
More violence broke out in the neighborhood this week when a well-known convenience store employee was pistol-whipped while two men held up the Marine Mart, 672 Marine St.
On March 22, at 2:40 p.m., Santa Monica Police responded to the store and spoke to the employee, who said that two suspects had robbed him. The victim said the two suspects entered the store and a black man in his 20s approached him brandishing a handgun. A second suspect, also a black man in his 20s, went to the cash register and removed an undisclosed amount of money. During the robbery, the first suspect struck the victim on the head with the gun. The victim, who sustained a laceration on his head, was treated at the scene for his injuries.
The first suspect is believed to between 20 and 25 years old, 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with a thin build and black hair. He was wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans and was clean-shaven. The second suspect is between 19 and 20 years old, 5 feet, 2 inches tall, medium build, and having black hair. He was wearing a dark gray or black pullover sweatshirt, blue jeans and was clean-shaven.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 25, 2006. Read the original PDF.