SHERMAN OAKS : Removal of Wall at Site of ATM Slaying Is Rejected

Managers of a Sherman Oaks office building where a pregnant woman was stabbed to death in an ATM robbery in March have refused pleas from its bank tenant and the local chapter of the National Organization for Women to remove a wall that may have hidden the attack from passers-by.

The dispute began shortly after the death of Sherri Foreman, a Toluca Lake woman who was fatally stabbed March 30 after withdrawing $40 from an ATM at the Great Western Bank at Riverside Drive and Woodman Avenue.

Foreman was stabbed by a man who had been loitering there for at least two hours, according to witness accounts and a bank surveillance camera. Foreman’s 13-week-old fetus died immediately and Foreman died a day later.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Phil Rabichow said the wall blocks the view of a portion of the bank building’s parking lot from Riverside Drive. But because there were no witnesses, it is unknown whether the assailant used the wall for cover.

Building manager Lawrence Law agreed to requests by bank officials and the San Fernando Valley chapter of NOW to cut back shrubbery and improve lighting, but he has refused to remove the wall.