A Farewell Walk : Officer Pounds Downtown Beat for Last Time Amid Tears, Hugs

The homeless riding out the rainstorm emerged from their cardboard boxes and plastic tarps Thursday as the police officer approached.

It wasn’t another Skid Row roust, however. Street people in downtown Los Angeles were joining merchants in saying farewell to a friend--the cop who has walked a beat in one of the city’s toughest areas for more than 15 years.

As usual, Officer Larry Soeltz was taking it in stride.

“We’re gonna miss you, man,” yelled out Elmer Walker as he huddled in the rain in front of the Midnight Mission. “Good luck to you.”

Gwen Youngblood crawled out of her cardboard home and planted a kiss on Soeltz’s cheek. “He even arrested me once--receiving stolen property. But he’s the nicest man you’ll ever meet,” she said.

Another homeless man, Cornelius Green, held his umbrella to shield Soeltz from the downpour. “He gave me a jaywalking ticket once. But he’s a good person. I’m sorry to see him go.”

Half a block away, 4th Street wholesale merchant Bryan Ho forced a farewell gift into Soeltz’s arms. On Winston Street, toy shop owner Hannie Kelly hugged Soeltz and thanked him for keeping trucks from parking illegally in front of her store and for solving a burglary there. “We love you, Larry. We’ll miss you a lot,” she said.

Walking the beat between Los Angeles and San Pedro and 3rd and 7th streets, Soeltz wore out 12 pairs of shoes as he put a human face on law enforcement in the city’s most anonymous neighborhoods.

He did not have the computer that is used by officers in cars. So he memorized the names and faces of those on the Police Department’s most wanted list and captured 10 murder suspects as he walked the streets.

He did not have the macho attitude some cops cultivate. So he once talked down a drunk woman intent on suicide from a 10th-floor window of Main Street’s Cecil Hotel. Another time he cajoled a distraught man from jumping off the top of the City Hall tower.

He gave struggling shopkeepers his Anaheim home phone number to call if they needed help. He gave ragged street people money from his pocket for lunch.

No wonder there were hugs and tears Thursday when the 49-year-old cop stepped onto Los Angeles Street for the last time to say goodby before retiring.

If Soeltz was loved in the neighborhood, he was something of a legend in the Central Division police station where fellow officers surprised him with a cake and farewell speeches at the Thursday morning roll call.

They remembered him as part of the team that set a department record by writing 191 jaywalking tickets one day a few years ago. “I wrote 99 and my partner, Don Moody, wrote 92. I had writer’s cramp and could hardly read a driver’s license by the end of the day,” Soeltz said.

They remembered him as the guy who subdued an assault suspect who was attacking motorists and cars on Los Angeles Street with a bar stool. Soeltz was severely slashed by the stool’s steel legs. “He slammed it into my arm,” Soeltz said. “The tendons and nerves came out like spaghetti. They were hanging out my shirt sleeve.”

Most of all, they remembered him as a person who understood the rhythm of the street like few ever learn to.

“He taught me how to be a little more concerned about people who may be worse off than I am--to try to understand their plight,” said Officer Daryl Vest.

“He taught me to remember that I might just be one paycheck away or one misstep away from being on the street myself. That’s taken me a long way.”

Lt. Stan Ludwig said Soeltz’s personnel file is filled with more than 70 letters of commendation--including one written by an 11-year-old boy thanking Soeltz for tracking down and returning his stolen bicycle.

More than 50 shopkeepers have made reservations to attend a March 5 retirement party that officers have planned for Soeltz at a downtown restaurant. “He’s one person who has made a difference in this town,” Ludwig said.

Solicitous to the end, Soeltz made a point on his last day of introducing street people and shopkeepers alike to his replacement, Officer Albert Rodriguez.

“You call him. Albert and Mike Ybarra will be here for you,” he told snack bar owner Hyuck Yoon. Ybarra became a part of the two-man beat team when Moody retired in 1991 after working 14 years with Soeltz.

In the end, the day became one of reminiscence, not arrests.

“He brought stability to this neighborhood,” said Mary Just, director of St. Vincent’s Cardinal Manning Center, a 76-bed shelter and social service agency. “Larry allowed people to have some dignity, even when he was doing what he had to do.”

At 7th and Main streets, Soeltz and Rodriguez passed a bronze plaque that shopkeepers cemented into the sidewalk in the 1980s to honor Soeltz and Moody.

Twenty-year-old Frank Mondaca was standing near it at the doorway to a fast-food restaurant that he and his father will soon open. Mondaca said goodby to Soeltz.

“I’ve known him since I was 7,” Mondaca said. “He and Moody used to get us kids into the wrestling matches down at the Olympic Auditorium.”

At the Craby Joe’s bar a few doors away, bartender Virginia Flores stepped onto the sidewalk to hug the graying cop.

“He’s a friend as well as a police officer,” Flores said. “He’s broken up fights here and investigated a shooting five years ago. But he was never too busy to stop and say hello to children.”

At a nearby adult book store, owner David Noroff said the beat cop will be remembered for his honesty and diplomacy.

And for his tenacity, said Victor Bankoff, who has owned a neighboring pawn shop for 40 years.

“One time when I was held up at closing time, the robber put a bullet in the roof for emphasis. When a woman got shot a couple of days later over on Broadway, Larry came in and crawled into my attic to hunt for the bullet. He finally pried it out of a 4-by-6 beam.”

The markings on the robbery bullet did not match those on the shooting slug. But Soeltz’s dogged search made a lasting impression on Bankoff.

On Windsor Street, electronics shop owner Kevin Lao had the last word.

“Enjoy your life,” he told Soeltz.

On the sidewalk outside, Soeltz ended his 25-year police career with a reach into his pocket.

He pulled out two dollar bills and bought a hot dog for a homeless man named Cedric Sykes and then headed for the station.