A Quiet Neighborhood Responds to a Shock

Satisfaction mixed with apprehension in Washington Manor yesterday as residents learned that San Leandro police have arrested one suspect in a brazen home invasion robbery that occurred last month in this modest, working-class neighborhood.

Police announced Thursday that 27-year-old Oakland resident Frank Scott was arrested over the Labor Day weekend and has been charged in an Aug. 25 incident in which a family of four was robbed at gunpoint in their own home on the 1500 block of Arena Street.

Two other suspects remain at large in a crime that shocked neighbors because of its randomness and the fact that one of two armed intruders carried an assault rifle.

“That's scary because it could happen to anyone,” said one neighbor, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation.

The neighbor, a retiree who graduated from San Leandro High and has lived in the city since he was 11, said nothing of this sort had ever happened in the 40 plus years that he has owned a home down the block from where the robbery occurred.

“We've had some break-ins but nothing like this,” he said. “This is a quiet neighborhood.”

Police said the robbery occurred at about 8:30 on a Thursday evening when three men, two of them armed, accosted a neighborhood resident in his own driveway and forced him inside where he, his wife and their two children were held at gunpoint.

Alameda County prosecutors have charged Scott with robbery, kidnapping, false imprisonment and robbery of an inhabited dwelling.

San Leandro Police Department spokesman Lt. Jeff Tudor said there have been other home invasion robberies in the city but none like this.

“Usually it's a situation where there's a drug buy that went bad or the perpetrators know the occupants have a lot of money around,” Tudor said, adding that this appears to have been a random crime.

Police said the suspects ransacked the house while holding the family at gunpoint, taking jewelry, cash and cell phones, and then ran from the house, presumably into the light-colored four-door sedan that they are believed to have been driving.

Why the perpetrators targeted the house is a mystery.

Arena Street is just a couple of blocks long, with modest one-story homes set back behind trimmed but mostly parched lawns. A boat was parked in one driveway. One house had a “For Sale” sign out front. A couple of homes could use a coat of paint.

There was nothing to suggest that residents were wealthy nor any reason why the perpetrators would have turned into this quiet street off the beaten track.

At the far end of Arena Street, a father on his way to pick up his children from school welcomed the news that one suspect was in custody but declined to give his name while other suspects remain at large.

The man, who has lived in the neighborhood for six years, said one irony is that the neighborhood used to have a Crime Watch group but that it had fallen into disuse as some of the older residents moved away and the newcomers took their safety for granted.

The crime seems to have shocked the neighbors back into communication.

“We're going to have a meeting and get together,” he said. “We have to keep an eye out for one another.”

Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact Det. Sgt. Ted Henderson at 510-577-3237.