Los Angeles, California – Fear and frustration are growing among residents of the Ashton Sherman Village Apartments in the Valley Village neighborhood of Los Angeles after the horrifying murder of a tenant last week — a crime that remains unsolved as of Wednesday, with management accused of doing little to address security concerns in the aftermath.
The victim, 53-year-old Menashe “Manny” Hidra, was found dead in his top-floor apartment on April 26, three days after neighbors reported hearing screams. A friend who hadn’t heard from Hidra, who had reportedly been recovering from COVID-19, requested a welfare check. Responding officers made the grim discovery inside his fifth-floor unit on Riverside Drive.
“I just woke up to loud noises, something crashing,” said Matthew Maxfield, a resident who lives directly below Hidra. “There was screaming, and I called our security and also the police.”
Surveillance footage from the building shows a man—believed by police to be a suspect—attempting to enter apartments on a different floor around the same time the screams were reported. The man is described as a Hispanic male in his 30s or 40s, between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing 180-200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a dark hooded jacket, baseball cap, white shirt, and blue jeans.
Police believe the killer accessed Hidra’s unit by first entering an adjacent vacant apartment and then scaling the balcony to reach the victim’s. Residents say photos of bloodstains on the building’s exterior between the balconies and a bloodied stairwell door handle support this theory.
“I walk past those bloodstains every day now,” one fifth-floor resident, who declined to be named, told KTLA. “They’re still there.”
Adding to residents’ unease is the building management’s muted response. An email acknowledging the murder offered vague assurances and stated that staff are “fully cooperating” with police. However, residents report that management has been removing flyers with the suspect’s image and ignoring long-standing complaints about safety, including broken security fobs, easily breached entrances, and transients reportedly living on the roof.
“What are they going to do to keep us safe?” another resident asked. “What security measures are they taking?”
The LAPD is asking anyone with information or who recognizes the suspect to contact the Valley Bureau at 818-374-9559. Anonymous tips can be submitted at 800-222-8477 or online at www.lacrimestoppers.org.
With the killer still at large and trust in building management eroding, many tenants say they no longer feel safe in their own homes.
