FEBRUARY 1997: NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH CAPTAIN GUNNED DOWN; BRAVE CIVILIAN PUT HIMSELF ON FRONT LINE.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

Just in case there is any doubt, and there shouldn't be, that was a cop killing in Reseda on Thursday night.

A cold-blooded assassination of a man who put his life on the line every day as a civilian Neighborhood Watch block captain to help police clean up some of the meanest streets in the Valley.

Pedro Roberto Banegas, 42, may not have been wearing an LAPD badge or driving a black and white patrol car when some gangbanger with a gun ended his life. But he's as much a cop as any police officer sworn to protect and serve.

Banegas deserves nothing less than a cop's funeral - a motorcade, and an LAPD honor guard firing a 21-gun salute as police and City Hall dignitaries praise the job he did for all of us out there.

Nothing less than Chief Willie Williams handing his widow, Ana, a folded American flag, and the department's deepest sorrows.

Any citizens who lose their lives stepping over the line from passive observers to activists in helping police fight crime in their neighborhoods deserve nothing less from this city.

Making a stand

This isn't their career. They're not bucking for promotion. There are no 401(k) plans or health care packages. They aren't getting paid a dime.

These are just average, incredibly committed people, making a stand in their neighborhoods.

That's what community policing and the Neighborhood Watch program is all about - citizens stepping forward because they're fed up with crime on their streets?

The cops can't do it alone.

Pedro Roberto Banegas got involved as a block captain in his neighborhood, the Parthenia Park Apartments in Northridge - a name designed to obscure its past as ``Bryant-Vanalden,'' one of the toughest parts of the Valley.

Now, he's dead. A gang payback, police suspect.

And every cop in L.A. should be hitting the streets today with a little extra incentive - looking for the killer of one of their own because that's exactly what Banegas was, even if he didn't have a badge.

Part of the team

``Everyone who is an activist in Neighborhood Watch and community policing is on our team, is one of us,'' said LAPD Lt. George Rock, who is overseeing the homicide investigation at West Valley Division.

``When we lose one, it affects us all.'' Cops and civilians.

Rock, like many officers in the LAPD today, worries that this murder may chill other citizens from coming forward to help in Neighborhood Watch programs.

``For community policing to be successful, we need people like Mr. Banegas,'' Rock said. ``They're our eyes and ears. They're essential in helping us eliminate the crime and fear out there.

``We can't let this incident deter those efforts,'' he said.

Will it? I doubt it - not in most of the Valley, anyway. I've spent plenty of time with dozens of these block captains over the years, driving down their streets as they patrol their neighborhoods. Their commitment runs pretty deep.

Still, you don't need a road map of the Valley to know there's a big difference between being a block captain in a relatively low crime neighborhood in Encino or West Hills, and being one, like Banegas was, on gang-infested streets.

Home to decent people

Given a new name and a face lift in 1988, Parthenia Park has been home to a lot of decent people trying to live among the gangsters.

Despite the neighborhood's long rap sheets, Banegas signed on for the job. He didn't have to. He could have drawn the drapes, locked the doors and hunkered down for the night like most people in his neighborhood - leaving the streets to gangs until the sun came up.

But he didn't. Pedro Roberto Banegas stepped over the line and chose sides. The cop's side.

The department owes him.

We all owe him.