Neighborhood Watch Leader Slain in Dispute

The husband of a Neighborhood Watch block captain was shot and killed when he went to investigate a dispute among neighbors, apparently the first incident of its kind in the two-decade history of the anti-crime program, police said Monday.

Officials with the Los Angeles Police Department said it appeared that Keith Brown went beyond the scope of the training given to Neighborhood Watch volunteers and allowed himself to be drawn into a lethal dispute Sunday night.

Brown, 42, was shot in the head, neck and abdomen at 8:30 p.m. and died two hours later at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

Scott James Craft, 33, was booked on suspicion of murder. Craft, who is unemployed, is known for provoking confrontations and yelling at children who step on his grass, neighbors said.

Detective Rick Swanston said the incident began when Craft shouted profanity at a woman walking her 3-year-old grandchild along the 20400 block of Lorne Street, a quiet, tree-lined boulevard. The child apparently had dragged a stick over the newly resurfaced driveway of the suspect’s house, Swanston said.

The woman reported the incident to the Neighborhood Watch block captain, Kathy Brown. Brown, her husband and their 5-year-old son walked down the street to get Craft’s address, with the apparent intent of reporting the matter to the police.

As Brown approached Craft’s home, Craft yelled profanities, police said. An argument started, then Craft took out a .25-caliber handgun and fired it once in the direction of his own truck. Kathy Brown went to call police.

Craft put the gun in his truck and Keith Brown began to walk away. Then he picked up a 5-foot-long 2-by-4, turned back, threw the wood down in front of Craft and walked toward him. Craft got his gun and fired several shots, killing Brown, police said.

A member of Brown’s family said she believed he picked up the wood to defend himself, then dropped it when he no longer felt threatened.

“What Brown set out to do was get the address,” Swanston said. “He went beyond that and got involved in an argument. We wouldn’t want him to do that.”

Neighborhood Watch programs have been active for more than 20 years in Los Angeles, according to LAPD spokeswoman Sgt. Stephany Payne.

“Normally, what they are told to do is call the police” when they see trouble, she said. “None of us ever told anyone to take matters into their own hands.”

Tim Kidd, a senior lead officer in the West Valley Division, where the shooting took place, said there have been cases in which Neighborhood Watch block captains have tried to be crime fighters. “We’ve had people observe crimes, apprehend suspects,” he said.

But he never saw a case end “in this situation.”

Kidd said that when he meets with Neighborhood Watch block captains, he explains one cardinal rule: “Never put yourself in jeopardy. We never encourage anyone to get involved in disputes.”

USC criminologist Malcolm Klein said the incident is an anomaly and not a sign of growing vigilantism among Neighborhood Watch organizations.

“I don’t know of any other specific instances like this one,” he said. “The LAPD, more than most departments, doesn’t like vigilantism.”

The Browns, who ran the block’s Neighborhood Watch group, were the group’s centerpiece, offering their motor home as a meeting place after the Northridge earthquake and keeping an open-door policy for any neighbors who had problems.

“Keith and Kathy were like the neighborhood magnets,” said Kay Marek, who lived just a few doors down from the family. “Everybody always met at their house.”

And on a street where most of the windows boast yellow Neighborhood Watch signs, neighbors were reeling over the death of a man allegedly killed by one of those he sought to protect.

“You always knew he would back you up,” said his mother-in-law Dorothy McGlaun, who flew in from Georgia to comfort her family. “I always worried that something would happen to him. It finally happened.”

Brown, who grew up in Encino, moved to the neighborhood about 10 years ago while starting a pool-cleaning service. Family members say that on his work rounds he would often pick up milk for elderly customers and on a couple of occasions had rescued people who were in danger of drowning in their own pools.

Neighbors described Craft, on the other hand, as a man who verbally abused neighborhood children who strayed near his home, often yelling at them when they got close to his grass. One neighbor described Craft simply as “mean.”

The shooting caused neighbors to question whether the Neighborhood Watch remains a safe method of patrolling neighborhoods.

“Are people so disturbed that they can’t solve a simple disagreement with their neighbors?” asked Brown’s longtime friend, Jay Dalton. “It was not an us-against-them incident, it was one of ‘us’ from the same block.”

Residents said the shooting should alert other Watch groups to step away from situations that merit a police response.

“The real sad part of this whole thing is that [Brown] was a positive part of this neighborhood,” Dalton said. “Keith only wanted to improve the quality of life in his neighborhood. Not everywhere, just here on his block.”