Confronting crime on a street of fear

<p>Marie Ibanez walks through her neighborhood in Bellevue Ranch in southwest Santa Rosa, pointing at various households where she says she knows residents are armed with guns.</p><p>The two-story homes, not more than a decade old with neatly trimmed lawns, have all the appearances of a classic suburban scene, not a modern-day danger zone where neighbors talk of their fears and how they sleep with shotguns next to their beds.</p><p>Ibanez and her husband bought a shotgun in March after repeated incidents of vandalism and seeing more crime and gang activity in the area.</p><p>The latest incident occurred Thursday night, when someone wielding a baseball bat busted out the windows of five cars in front of four households. Video from surveillance cameras that the Ibanez family installed a year ago in front of their home on Antelope Lane does not show the crime, but does show three people, two wearing hooded sweat shirts and another wearing a beanie, casually walking down the sidewalk with a bat at about 7:30 p.m.</p><p>Getting a gun was no easy choice for the couple. They have three kids between the ages of 3 and 11.</p><p>"It was a difficult decision to make because we have kids. It's the last thing you want in your home," said Marie Ibanez's husband, Tim.</p><p>It also seems like the last thing that would happen in this maze of short streets and cul-de-sacs in the heart of Bellevue Ranch, a 500-home subdivision built in the late 1990s that drew many families moving into their first homes, and that is now dotted with for sale signs, reflecting the housing downturn.</p><p>Santa Rosa police Lt. Hank Schreeder, who is assigned to the area, said Saturday the fear and concern arise from issues of personal animosity as well as broader community conflicts, and he cautioned against homeowners taking up arms.</p><p>Despite such assurances, some</p><p>homeowners say they are acting in self-defense.</p><p>Laurie Pachorek, who lives around the corner from the Ibanez family, said she and her husband purchased a gun because they fear crime could soon escalate into home invasions.</p><p>The Pachoreks have three children, with the most recent addition coming 4½ months ago.</p><p>"At night, my husband takes the firearm out and puts it next to the bed in case somebody breaks in," said Pachorek, adding that both she and her father-in-law have had their cars broken into.</p><p>One neighbor, who asked that his name not be used, said he has always kept guns in his house, but now "I keep them more handy."</p><p>"I'm actually looking to buy a shotgun, a home-defense shotgun," he said. "I wouldn't hesitate making Swiss cheese out of somebody trying to get into my house."</p><p>Neighbors say gang activity in the area is on the rise, and some have seen all-out brawls in front of their homes. They say they've practically ceded Bellevue Ranch Park to young thugs who regularly drink alcohol there and harass passers-by.</p><p>"Yesterday, I saw some kids in broad daylight passing what looked like a joint around," said Sharon Cisneros, a real estate broker who moved to Santa Rosa from San Diego a couple of years ago.</p><p>Cisneros' car was the last of the five vehicles that had their windows broken Thursday.</p><p>"I moved here two years ago and was basically floored at the level of gang activity," she said. "I thought that I was moving to a safer, more rural area. When I came up here, I was very surprised."</p><p>Cisneros said she didn't think the answer to the problems in the community could be solved by everyone arming themselves.</p><p>"I feel sad more than anything that we live in a community and a society where people feel that threatened that they have to arm themselves," she said.</p><p>Another resident of Antelope Lane, who declined to be named and whose husband's SUV was also vandalized Thursday, said she wouldn't feel safe having a gun in her home because of her children.</p><p>"We moved to this neighborhood thinking it was a new neighborhood and that it was going to be safe," she said.</p><p>Police Chief Ed Flint, reached by cell phone Friday while out of town, directed questions about the area to police officials more familiar with the neighborhood.</p><p>Schreeder said some of the vandalism problems experienced by the Ibanez family earlier this year stem from a family dispute over a property.</p><p>Those incidents, some of which were captured on surveillance cameras, show fireworks being thrown on the lawn, someone dumping dog feces on their lawn and a person wearing a ski mask throwing a bottle at the living room window.</p><p>Marie Ibanez said the incidents were likely retaliation for a restraining order her family obtained against the ex-husband of her husband's stepsister, a man with a criminal history who died earlier this year.</p><p>Ibanez and other neighbors say the problems in the neighborhood are much broader and that there is a feeling among many that the neighborhood is no longer safe.</p><p>Schreeder said such a perception stems from frustration and is not good for a community -- and that buying guns is not the answer.</p><p>"We have to give people the perception that they're taking control of their neighborhood, that they have the power to make a change and a difference," Schreeder said.</p><p>But he said the police solution "can't be all law enforcement.</p><p>"The neighborhood has to be part of the solution," he said.</p><p>Cisneros agreed.</p><p>"For this neighborhood, the best thing we can do is band together, work together," she said.</p><p>Santa Rosa Mayor Bob Blanchard said Saturday night that it was the first time he had heard of the tensions on Antelope Lane and that it was important to recognize that "there are ways of dealing with this without going to the extremes of weapons."</p><p>He noted that specialists in community policing are trained in addressing issues "before they go criminal," and said officials need to take a closer look at the actual crime statistics to determine "if this is perception or reality."</p><p>Meanwhile, residents are worried things will escalate to a lethal point.</p><p>Pachorek's husband was one of three men who on Thursday chased after three people in hooded sweat shirts who they thought might be responsible for the car vandalism. They didn't catch them.</p><p>"Somebody is going to get shot," she said. "There are too many residents here now that are in fear for their families and their children and houses that they're going to take matters into their own hands, and somebody is going to get shot."</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.</p>