Violence

On the night of Nov. 30, at 7 p.m., a 22-year-old woman who lived in the apartment building next door to mine was murdered by a man apparently on a “crime spree.” He hid in his car on our quiet street until this woman, whose name I do not know, walked by carrying her groceries home from the market. He stabbed her and left her bleeding on the sidewalk. She died the next day.

Though I understand a suspect is in custody, it does not lessen my horror at the way violence affects all our lives in this city. I would like this young woman to have known, somehow, that even on this street where neighbors do not know each other’s names, in a city where our eyes meet for just a flicker on the freeway--she is missed.

LOUISE STEINMAN

Los Angeles