Dental Technician Attacked With Knife in Eagle Rock

A security guard who once worked for an Eagle Rock dentist allegedly attacked a technician who works in the dentist’s clinic with a knife Monday, injuring the victim and escaping before police arrived.

The attack allegedly occurred at 10:58 a.m. in the lane adjacent to the store on the south side of Colorado Boulevard, between Walgreens and , according to the dentist, Richard J. Lands.

Lands said he was driving south on the lane toward his clinic on the corner of Eagle Rock Boulevard and Merton Avenue when he saw the suspect, Jeffrey Scott Handy, walking in the opposite direction toward three men who work for the dentist.

The trio—a father and his two sons—were waiting for Lands in the lane, the dentist said, adding that as soon as he spotted the suspect he got out of his car. Handy, said Lands, had a habit of coming to him for handouts, and he had told him to stop doing so.

Lands said he told Handy he would call the police unless he left. The next thing he knew, Handy allegedly pulled out a knife and attacked one of Land’s three employees, whom the dentist identified as Scott Refaeli.

Refaeli suffered mild cuts to the palm and wrist of one of his hands, which were treated by paramedics who rushed to the scene of the alleged attack from about eight minutes after Lands called 911, the dentist said.

Two LAPD squad cars also responded almost simultaneously, but by then the suspect had run down the lane and disappeared west on Merton Avenue, Lands said.

Gabriel Rivas, one of the LAPD officers who responded to the 911 call, told Eagle Rock Patch that the suspect used a kitchen knife in the attack and is believed to have “fallen on drugs.” Lands said he didn’t know what kind of knife it was, except that it had a “big, shiny blade.” He described Handy as “essentially homeless” and on drugs.

Rivas said robbery was not a motive for the alleged attack, and that the suspect knew the victim, with whom he appeared to have some differences.

Lands said he has been running his dental practice from an office at 5027 Eagle Rock Boulevard for the past 40 years. He said he employed Handy on a part-time basis for about 18 months some three years ago to keep an eye on an estate he owned in Los Feliz at the time.

Every few weeks, Handy would come to his clinic to ask for money, said Lands. He would give Handy anywhere from $20 to $40, added Lands, but had gotten tired of doing so and told him to stop pestering him for handouts.

“When he comes down next time, we’ll pick him up,” said LAPD’s Rivas of Handy.