Fear on The Strand : Fatal Stabbing of Doctor’s Wife on Her Patio Sends Shock Waves Along Hermosa Beach

Anxiety replaced the breezy atmosphere of Hermosa Beach on Wednesday, the day after the wife of a prominent doctor was stabbed to death on her patio, allegedly by a woman who told police she sleeps on the beach.

Sharon K. Hendrix, 29, was charged with first-degree murder Wednesday in the death of Gillian M. Cooper, 40, the wife of Irwin Cooper, an anesthesiologist whose large beachfront house is a community landmark.

Hendrix will be arraigned today in Torrance Superior Court.

Police said she had been arrested about a half-dozen times since 1982, on charges ranging from prostitution to assault with a deadly weapon. She also had several convictions on misdemeanor counts and was known under a string of aliases, including Jody Foster, Omar Sharie and Sharon Bianci, police said.

“Probably a mental case,” said sheriff’s investigator Gary Kotler.

Cooper and her mother were standing on the patio of her luxury home along The Strand--a heavily used promenade that divides the beach from rows of single-family homes--about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday when Hendrix came over a 3-foot wall, police said.

Cooper warned the woman that she was trespassing and Hendrix cursed her, pulled out a knife with an 8-inch blade and rushed at her, stabbing her once in the chest, said Kotler. Cooper died about 45 minutes later at South Bay Hospital.

“As far as we are aware, they were complete strangers to one another,” said Lt. Michael Lavin of the Hermosa Beach Police Department.

“The victim and her mother were standing around minding their own business,” Lavin said. “They didn’t provoke this person.”

City officials and neighbors, as well as others along The Strand found the circumstances of the incident particularly troubling because it shows the vulnerability of the outdoor patio and sidewalk activities that are the signature of the good life in this city.

At Martha’s 22nd Street Grill, two blocks from where the stabbing took place, two women talked about the killing on Wednesday as they waited to order. They would not give their names, saying they are uneasy about their personal security.

“It is shocking, horrible,” one said. “I live on The Strand.”

“It’s not very comforting,” said the other.

The first woman said the incident directly threatens the casual atmosphere of Hermosa Beach.

“Part of the attraction to the area is that we can walk and bike to our friends and talk over the fence. It’s very public. . . . We don’t want to be like Malibu, behind gates. We like the public atmosphere,” she said.

“You think no one would do anything because people are all around. But you are visible to crazy people.”

Nick Hawn, 19, an El Camino College student, who was baby-sitting next door when the stabbing occurred, administered first aid to Cooper as she lay dying. Police brought the suspect to the house a few minutes later and Gillian Cooper’s mother said, “That’s her,” according to Hawn.

The suspect appeared “drugged out,” and was mumbling under her breath “nothing I could understand,” he said. “She looked like she had been on the road.”

Hawn, who works in a nearby liquor store, said he has seen an increase in transients since the crackdown on the homeless who live on Venice Beach. “They are walking by and making people feel uncomfortable,” he said.

Waitress Elizabeth Pio, 26, who runs 8 miles a day on The Strand, said she also had noticed a recent increase in the number of vagrants on the beach during her jogging.

Hermosa Beach Councilman Chuck Sheldon, who lives 2 blocks from the Cooper residence on The Strand, said: “I can only hope that it was an absolute freak occurrence.”

He said he had not detected any increase in transients in Hermosa Beach and would not recommend an increase in police near the beach.

Nevertheless, he said, “I am certainly going to be more cautious as everyone should be. It is just incredible to me, just mind-boggling.”

Mayor Etta Simpson also said she was not aware of any increase in homeless people in Hermosa Beach.

“We will certainly be alert to it,” she said. “I walk on the beach. . . . I have never felt frightened or bothered by people who use the beach.”

‘No New Pain’

Sheldon said the Cooper home, an imposing structure with Spanish-style architecture, had just been remodeled.

At the residence on Wednesday, an elderly woman came to the door, said she was the mother of Dr. Cooper and advised that her son did not want to talk.

“He does not want any new pain,” she said. “It is a terrible tragedy.” Then she closed the door.

Homicide investigator Kotler said that the Coopers’ two large dogs, which had been on the patio during the incident, may have provided a false sense of security.

“The dogs were just pets. They have be trained (to be guard dogs). They don’t do things like that by nature,” he said.

Kotler said Hendrix had identification on her listing an address in Banning, but that she told police she is a transient who sleeps on the beach.