Murder Victim Had Led Battle to Prevent Crime : Inglewood: The death of 84-year-old Sadie Hancock hit the members of her Neighborhood Watch group ‘like a ton of bricks.’ Police say she was probably killed during a robbery attempt.

Soon after Sadie Hancock moved into her Inglewood home in the mid-1970s, she began spreading the word among neighbors that she wanted to form a block club to unify the neighborhood against crime.

Last week, the group that she eventually helped form was dealt devastating news: The 84-year-old Hancock--a gregarious woman known to all her neighbors simply as Sadie--had become a victim of the type of crime she had tried to prevent.

Hancock was stabbed to death in her home in the 8700 block of 7th Avenue during what police say was probably a robbery attempt. Ironically, the sirens of police officers responding to the scene interrupted Monday night’s block club meeting across the street from her home.

Milton Smith, who called the first block club meeting at Hancock’s request in 1986, said word of the murder hit the neighborhood “like a ton of bricks.”

What made the news all the tougher was that “this is the type of thing we were trying to avoid,” said Smith, the Neighborhood Watch group’s co-captain.

Although the 25-member club--which Inglewood police officials call one of the city’s most active anti-crime groups--was not able to prevent Hancock’s murder, the cohesiveness that Hancock had inspired among her neighbors remains.

All along the neat residential street, families last week were grieving the loss of someone they regarded as a family member.

“She was a part of us,” said Legirtha McQueen. “She kept the block together. She was just Sadie to us. Everyone looked to her.”

Hancock, one of the first black residents on a block that was once all-white, was usually the first one to greet new neighbors. Smith, who describes her as “the best neighbor you could have,” remembers that it was Hancock who first said, “Welcome,” when he and his family moved onto the street in 1983.

Hancock was a widow who had no children and lived alone. But she was far from a recluse. When she wasn’t meeting with neighbors, she could been seen weeding her flower garden or walking down the street or coming or going on one of her many overseas trips, the block’s residents said.

“For an 84-year-old lady, she got around better than I did,” said Beverly McCauly, 40. “She said she was 84, but I think she was 16. She was like my grandmother and my best friend.”

And could Hancock talk!

“You would go over there and say one thing, and you’d be over there for an hour,” McCauly said.

Lewis Duncan, 62, a block club co-captain who moved onto the block in 1962, said Hancock was always vocal when the neighbors got together. “She was very outspoken about how she felt about everything,” he said.

At Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles, where Hancock had been a member since 1942, parishioners also were grappling with her tragic death.

“Everybody was devastated. It’s hard to believe that anybody would do anything like this to Sadie,” said Eleanor Mondy, a member of Hancock’s Bible study group who drove to her home to confirm the news for herself.

“Sadie was a very pleasant, delightful woman, a real lady,” said the Rev. Gerald Adams. He said parishioners were calling one another with the news. “We can’t figure it out.”

An active church member, Hancock had returned from a trip only days before she was killed.

On Aug. 23, she had arrived back home from the Baptist World Alliance, a fellowship meeting for Baptists from across the world that was held in Seoul, South Korea. During that trip, she had also taken a cruise to Hong Kong and Singapore.

Police said Hancock was killed sometime between Saturday, Aug. 25, and last Monday. Neighbors said they saw Hancock on that Saturday afternoon walking down the street in her robe. Her body was found Monday night in her dining room by a neighbor who was worried after not hearing from her or seeing her since then.

An autopsy completed Thursday found that she had died from multiple stab wounds to the chest. She was dressed in her nightclothes.

Police said they had not yet identified any suspects and were baffled by the case. Investigators suspect that she could have surprised a burglar or gotten into an altercation with someone she allowed inside.

The door to Hancock’s home was unlocked when her body was discovered, and neighbors said Hancock always locked her door.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to do this to someone at this age,” said Inglewood Police spokesman Sgt. Harold Moret. “She was utterly defenseless.”

Although crime so close to home left many of the block’s residents frightened, it also gave them added resolve.

Duncan, who called Hancock’s death “a violent act right under our noses,” said block club members intend to become more vigilant by encouraging everyone to leave their outside lights on and to notify neighbors about gardeners, painters and other outsiders who will be on the block.

“How somebody could come into this close-knit block and do something like this is still a mystery,” Smith said. “But one thing is sure. We will work harder now. Just remembering Sadie will give us inspiration.”