Mother Held in Killing of Teen-Age Girl After Dispute Over Drug Use

Natasha Blacklock used to play hopscotch with friends on the streets around MacArthur Park. This last year her street games became more dangerous, as she dropped out of school and began buying and using rock cocaine.

The 16-year-old girl’s mother, Maureen Belle, a single mother with four children, became frantic with worry, relatives said. “She tried everything. She talked to her, dragged her off the streets, took her shopping, and tried to find social-worker help. But nothing worked. She was caught in drugs and there was no stopping it,” said Belle’s sister, Rene Johnson.

On Tuesday, during yet another desperate confrontation with her daughter over the use of drugs, Belle picked up a butcher knife and stabbed her daughter to death, police said.

Earlier that day, Belle, 32, had given her daughter $50 to buy a bus pass. Natasha came home about 10 p.m. with the pass, but not the change her mother expected, Johnson said. The two began screaming at one another about money and drugs. Johnson, who was awakened by the yelling, ran next door to find Belle sitting on the floor cradling Natasha in her arms. A butcher knife was sticking in Natasha’s chest.

“Maureen was rocking her back and forth sobbing, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I love you, don’t die, don’t die,’ ” Johnson said.

Natasha was taken to County-USC Medical Center where she died of a stab wound to the lungs and heart. Her mother was arrested on suspicion of murder, police said Wednesday. “She was very sorry for it, but it’s too late,” Detective Bert DiMauro said.

Johnson spent Wednesday making funeral arrangements for her niece and taking care of her sister’s other three children.

“Something just snapped in my sister,” Johnson said, shaking her head. “It really hurt her, what people were saying Natasha was doing down on Alvarado Street to get those drugs.

“She wanted her to do good, go to school. She tried to get her counseling, and a social worker gave her some numbers, but then those people just gave her more phone numbers and no help,” Johnson said. “Sometimes she’d be dragging Natasha home from somewhere and be all angry and I’d snatch her away and say everybody should calm down.”

Drugs Commonplace

The family lives in a neat one-bedroom pink stucco apartment on Mountain Avenue, a block off Alvarado Street near MacArthur Park, an area where gang and drug activity is commonplace, police said.

Belle, a part-time parking attendant at the Los Angeles Convention Center, was 16 years old when she had Natasha. She also has two sons, 10 and 12, and another daughter, 11. The children have been temporarily placed in the custody of Johnson.

Belle sometimes had trouble making ends meet and from time to time received public assistance. But for the most part she had tried to make it on her own, Johnson said.

Natasha had been enrolled in Canoga Park High School because her own Rampart-area school, Belmont High School, was overcrowded, school authorities said. However, records showed that she only attended two days this year. Sandra Benavidez, administrative dean who talked to Natasha and her mother about attendance problems, said: “Natasha didn’t seem too interested in going to any school and especially not in taking a 45-minute bus ride to get there. We had recently worked out a plan where she could go to Belmont next semester.”

Called Withdrawn

Natasha’s cousin, Tikishaw Murray, 15, said that the teen-ager was depressed and no longer had an interest in basketball and swimming. She said her cousin was withdrawn a lot of the time and wouldn’t talk about what was bothering her.

“She’d fight with her mother. I told her you gotta do what you gotta do and help her out some. Natasha would say, ‘Yeah, I guess I should.’ And she’d say she wasn’t going to buy drugs anymore. But then all she wanted to do was go down to Alvarado Street, to take things off her mind.”