Neighbors Left Shaken by San Pedro Slaying

The kids haven’t been out playing after dark this week along a small stretch of Santa Cruz Street in San Pedro. Not since Sunday night. Not since the neighborhood was shattered by the shots and the screams and the sirens.

“It’s pretty sad and scary,” resident Ronnie Ruggiero said three days after a rifle-toting robber walked into a house up the street and killed Richard Mavar.

The slaying has shaken the neighborhood.

It occurred about 11 p.m. on a steamy Sunday, after the 30-year-old contractor and his wife had opened the French doors to the back yard of their new home at 1415 W. Santa Cruz St., according to Los Angeles police.

Mavar and the intruder, who was armed with a high-powered assault rifle, struggled briefly in the family room. The momentary combat gave Mavar’s wife, Cameran, a chance to escape, police said.

As her screams pierced the quiet, Mavar and the gunman wrestled for the rifle. Mavar was shot.

Moments later, there were several more shots. And by the time police arrived--five minutes after the call--Mavar was dead. The gunman was gone.

While a suspect was soon captured, hopping fences not far from the Mavar home, the fright of that evening hung over the neighborhood several mornings later. Even Los Angeles police, who see violence and fear every day, talked about how anyone would be frightened by what happened.

“We all expect to be safe in our own homes,” said LAPD homicide Detective Paul Mize. “That’s the scary part of this.

“We all open doors at night when it gets hot. And none of us expects someone to come crashing into the house.”

Since the shooting, Harbor Division officers have paid special attention to the neighborhood, according to Capt. Joe DeLadurantey.

“We’re aware there is a level of fear there, and so we’ve sent out patrols to calm the neighborhood,” he said. “Even though we view this as an isolated incident, we feel an obligation to police the area because there is that fear.”

The patrols and the arrest of a suspect, who authorities allege also broke into the house in April shortly after the couple had moved into it, have slightly eased the fear along West Santa Cruz Street. Maybe, some residents say, the robber had targeted the Mavar home. Maybe, they say, someone stalking their neighborhood is an isolated event.

Then again, Ruggiero and other neighbors remain concerned. “You just don’t expect something like this around here,” Ruggiero, a father of four, said Tuesday. “I don’t know if it’s just a freak thing or what. . . . I do know the kids are scared.”

Jean Welle, who has lived on the block for 38 years, said: “Robberies happen everywhere. But you don’t expect this.”

The night of the shooting, Welle said, residents all along the block lined by tidy lawns and trees came out of their homes. They gathered outside to see what had happened. “We all knew something had happened. Then the police blocked off the street, and we knew it was something big,” she said.

“It’s such a tragedy,” Welle said. “You just realize you are not as safe as you thought. I’m sure we will all be buttoning up for a while.”

For some residents, just talking about what happened was difficult.

One neighbor, who requested anonymity, stood on the sidewalk outside her home Tuesday morning and spoke almost in a whisper about the incident.

She remembered the gunshots. “I thought they were firecrackers,” she said. And then she heard Mavar’s wife frantically yelling for someone to call police.

“When the officers got here, I told them to go across the street where his wife had been knocking on doors. I thought that’s where the problem was,” the woman said.

Moments later, she learned the truth.

“It’s a little scary,” she said somberly. “This is the kind of block you used to hear about where everyone knows everyone. Where you go next door to borrow something.

“It’s such a shame this happened,” the woman said, walking slowly back to her home and her children.

Late Wednesday, Kelvin McNeal Watson, 29, of Harbor City was being held without bail on suspicion of murder and robbery. His arraignment is set for Friday in Municipal Court. Authorities said they know little else about Watson, except that he is unemployed. They allege that he went to the Mavar home Sunday because he had successfully robbed it in April. The rifle used to kill Mavar has not been found.

Mavar, a roofer who built the home on West Santa Cruz, was raised in San Pedro. He is the adopted son of John Mavar Sr., whose family is prominent locally in the construction industry. The family has declined comment, and Mavar’s wife could not be reached.

Outside Mavar’s home Tuesday, two longtime friends talked as they cleaned up the house and prepared it to be sold.

“This kind of stuff just doesn’t happen around here,” said John Vilicich, a 32-year-old builder who had known Mavar since they were in their teens. “I’m sure it’s hit everybody in the gut.”

Rick Raljevich, a 30-year-old electrician, stood with Vilicich, talking about Mavar. “We grew up together. I’ve known him since we were both little guys,” he said.

“He was a hard worker. He was a hustler,” Raljevich said. He noted that Mavar’s house had only recently been built and that Mavar and his wife had seemed happy in their new home.

“This town’s changed,” Raljevich said.

“This town’s changed,” Vilicich agreed.