Man attacked with machete suing city over safety at Chatsworth Station

Man sues city after machete attack

Brent Meldeau was attacked by a homeless man on the way to the Chatsworth Metro station. Now he's suing the city, saying they failed to keep the area safe.

LOS ANGELES - A man who was attacked by a homeless man with a machete near a Metro station is suing the City of Los Angeles, saying it failed to keep the area safe, as a massive homeless encampment sits feet from the station.

Brent Meldeau was heading to the Chatsworth Metro station on March 2 around 6:45 p.m., just after sunset, when he said he was attacked. According to the police report provided by Meldeau's attorneys, Meldeau was approached by a man from the encampment, who threatened him with a machete before swinging at him.

"You don't know how bad your face is when you get hit with a machete," Meldeau said. "I thought my face was like hanging off."

Meldeau said he stumbled up and ran to the Ralph's across the street. He said he "saw him in the distance waving the machete going, 'You want some more?’ and I was like ‘Oh my gosh this guy is not done yet.’"

The attack left Meldeau with a cash down the left side of his face from his ear down to his mouth.

Meldeau's claim alleges that the city failed "to safeguard the metro station's parking lot situated several yards from a large homeless encampment." According to Meldeau's attorneys, the encampment sits several hundred feet from the station off of Devonshire Street, and the station, they claim, has poor lighting and no security cameras.

LAPD records show calls there have been more than a dozen calls to the area this year alone, for everything from assaults, to disturbances, even a dead body. Less than a month before Meldeau was attacked, LAPD records show another person was attacked, and injured enough to require an ambulance.

The issues are not unique to the Chatsworth station. FOX 11 has reported at least three attacks at or near Metro stations or trains this month alone, including a fatal stabbing on a Metro Blue Line train in Long Beach earlier this month, and another stabbing on a Metro Red Line train in Hollywood.

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"If this was a private company, this type of condition wouldn't be allowed to persist and it shouldn't be allowed to persist in a property of the city where they're inviting people to come and use the Metro," said attorney Cyrus Shahriari.

The man who attacked Meldeau has not yet been arrested. He says that with his daily reminder of the attack every time he looks in the mirror, he's worried it's only a matter of time before this happens to someone else.

"Something like this can happen to you, and you don't want it to change you, you want to stay nice to people and it's not going to change me, but this has to be fixed," said Meldeau.

"Just trying to catch a bus should not be a life-risking experience for the average person," Shahriari said.

FOX 11 has reached out to the city and has not yet heard back.