Security concerns after stabbing on Hollywood Blvd.
(FOX 11) - World famous Hollywood is known for its glitz and glamour, but there's a dark side too.
And some people are afraid to go there now especially after a stabbing in the heart of Hollywood.
Saturday morning. 10am. A tour salesman asks a homeless man in a wheelchair to move from one area in front of the store where he works to another. According to Suman Sharman, who works in a gift shop in that store, says the homeless man became angry, pulled a knife and cut the tour salesman's arm.
That was outside the gift shop. At that point the man hobbled inside the store dripping blood along the carpet as he looked for help. Sharman grabbed a souvenir tee-shirt and wrapped the victim's arm using the shirt as a tourniquet. There was "a lot of bleeding. I've never seen (so much) in my life," Sharman told FOX 11 News.
Jason Urbisci, the manager of a NY Pizza and Pasta restaurant next to the gift shop, says the man was cut in the artery which is why he bled so much. He passed out in front of his restaurant.
He says there were a lot of tourists who watched in horror. Urbisci says his restaurant lost about $1000 in business during the 6 hours the street was blocked off by police for the investigation.
He says it's not just the homeless--- but violence in general--people turning violent in this top tourist spot that has him concerned.
And he showed us a video from about three weeks ago in which the 70 year old nightside operator of a nearby parking lot got his jaw busted by what he calls thugs, one of whom, kicked him in the head so hard he fell to the ground.
Urbisci, himself, has a scar under his left eyebrow from one of twenty different run-ins he's had with homeless people outside his restaurant.
He says he knows the two men from the two different incidents. He says both are doing okay. The stabbing victim, he says, is still at a local hospital.
From Phil Shuman:
If you talk to Kerry Morrison, the crimes we report on on Fox 11 News are isolated incidents that happen in any urban area and absolutely should not keep people away from Hollywood, whether you're a business owner, a diner, a club goer, or a tourist.
She's been working with the property and business owners for more than 20 years and oozes credibility and her dedication and accomplishments are impressive just look at all the new construction and new residents and new businesses. I understand what she's saying but I also understand why a teenage girl visiting from Seattle for the first time is a little scared by someone shooting up drugs in the alley by a parking lot she left her car in off Hollywood Boulevard, and I also understand why parking lot attendant Raul Gomez says ''it's a problem '' and ''it's getting worse'' after he was viciously kicked in the head by someone demanding his money back, and I also understand why tour bus operator Nicholas Grant feels ''we need a lot more mental health resources'' for the homeless .
That's true in many places, but there's only one Hollywood, with all that it offers and with the millions of tourists it brings to our area, so you think this would be, what's the right word, a ''priority'' for the city ?