A homeless man with a criminal record was arrested for the stabbing death of an unidentified woman on the Los Angeles Metro train system while she was on her way home from work on Monday morning, officials with the Los Angeles Police Department say. Forty-five-year-old Elliot T. Nowden was arrested for the murder and robbery of the unidentified female victim, who was found with a stab wound in the neck at the Studio City station.
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According to police, Nowden approached the 50-year-old victim while still on the train and repeatedly stabbed and slashed her throat before taking her purse. The victim was able to get off the train at the Studio City Station, where she collapsed from her wounds. Police say LA City Fire officials were dispatched to the platform at approximately 4:59 Monday morning regarding a person down call. While responding to the call, dispatchers were updated with several calls stating that the victim was bleeding, but no one approached the victim to ascertain anything about her condition. When authorities arrived, they found the victim bleeding from her neck and transported her to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Cameras located at the station were able to record most of the incident on video and show Nowden leaving the scene immediately after. Police officers were able to apprehend Nowden approximately 30 minutes later, roughly half a mile from the scene of the crime. After being interviewed by homicide detectives, Nowden was subsequently arrested and charged with murder and held on $2 million bail.
According to officials and court documents, Nowden has a lengthy criminal record. He was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon in 2019 while he was on active probation for attacking another train passenger and was sentenced to four years for that crime. In the last several months, Nowden has been arrested and charged with several other criminal offenses, including a February arrest for an assault at the same platform where he attacked and murdered the woman. However, there have been no charges filed for that arrest to date. Detectives also believe that Nowden is responsible for several other incidents at the Metro station and are urging anyone with information to come forward.
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The stabbing death marks just another crime statistic to a trend that is growing and has been on the rise since 2019.
Homicides, aggravated assaults and robberies increased from 2019 through 2023, according to Metro’s year-end summary. There was a sharp increase in a separate category of crimes that include battery, vandalism, use of narcotics and sex offenses aboard Metro’s trains over the same period.
There were no homicides on Metro trains in 2019, but there were three in 2020; five each in 2021 and 2022; and six in 2023, according to Metro’s data. In December 2023, the B Line saw an 18% increase in total crime compared with the previous month, with an increase in aggravated assaults, robberies and larcenies.
It also coincides with another exploding statistic, where the number of homeless people in California, specifically in the broader Los Angeles region, is growing at a concerningly steady pace despite all the money being spent to lower it. A recent report showed that the homeless population and the problems that come with then have grown by double digits since 2019.
During the time period of the audit, between 2019 and 2023, despite the government throwing billions of dollars at the problem, homelessness did not go down. It actually exploded by 32 percent. In fact, over the last 10 years, homelessness has gone up over 50 percent.
Despite the billions in spending, California’s homelessness crisis has gotten worse. According to the audit, California’s homelessness population grew 32% over the last five years, and by 53% over the last 10. Five programs that accounted for a combined $13.7 billion in funding were analyzed by the state auditor, who found that just two of them are “likely cost-effective.”
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The LAPD is asking that anyone with any further information regarding the murder of the woman or any other crimes that Nowden is suspected of committing come forward with any information that could be used to facilitate more charges against Nowden. Contact the Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 222-TIPS or (800) 222-8477.