DOWNEY – Relatives of a man who was fatally stabbed while checking on his electric car as it was being charged outside the Downey city library in 2025 sued the city, alleging the municipality was on notice the lot was unsafe since a police officer was killed there a decade earlier.
The victim, Reinaldo Jesus Lefonts, 68, was charging his car at an EV station outside the city library last Sept. 13 when a homeless man fatally stabbed him, according to the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed by his widow, Amalia Menendez-Lefonts, and the couple’s two adult sons.
The location had a well-documented, chronic history of criminal activity amounting to 675 calls for service up until the day before Lefonts’ death, including arrests, assaults, robberies, sex crimes, arson, larceny, narcotics offenses, criminal threats, missing people, domestic disputes, and other serious public safety matters, the suit states…