Pasadena Police, Outreach Workers Secure Electric Wheelchair for Stroke Victim

Pasadena police and city outreach workers brightened the holidays for a former professional singer and stroke victim by surprising him with a sorely-needed electric wheelchair last week.

Homeless Outreach and Psychological Evaluation Team Supervisor Lt. Monica Cuellar met 70-year-old Eddie Johns through a chance encounter at the Jackie Robinson Community Center as she was conducting outreach alongside the Pasadena Outreach Response Team, she said.

A woman at the park introduced Cuellar to Johns, who was using a manual wheelchair, and told her his story.

After moving to France from Africa as a young man, Johns had enjoyed success as a professional singer, including a hit single titled “More Spell on You.”

Johns’ musical career ended as a result of management issues, and he ultimately settled in Pasadena, Cuellar said.

“He actually worked in Pasadena at one of the local car dealerships until six years ago, [when] he, unfortunately, suffered a stroke,” she said. “After the stroke, Mr. Johns lost everything. The stroke had disabled him to the point he was unable to utilize his left side. Thus began his journey of being homeless.”

Johns went through several shelters before securing an apartment at a seniors’ apartment complex in Los Angeles, Cuellar said.

“Although he uses a wheelchair to get around, Mr. Johns always came back to Pasadena to use the computers at the Central Library,” Cuellar said. The library computers are his primary way of communicating with his daughter in France.”

So Cuellar began a search to track down an electric wheelchair. She connected with the Santa Clarita-based Triumph Foundation, which was able to procure a donated wheelchair, she said.

“The [Homeless Outreach and Psychiatric Evaluation Team] went to go pick it up,” Cellular said. Just before Christmas, officials delivered the gift.

“He was so elated,” she said. “He was so cute. His face was just so lit up.”

Cuellar said she’s now trying to obtain a laptop computer for Johns to help him more easily keep in touch with his daughter.

Cuellar said the endeavor brightened her own holiday, as well.

After 28 years in law enforcement, she said she’s learned to appreciate the positive side of life.

“There are bad things that happen in the community, bad things that happen in the world, but there’s really a connection with human beings that are always going to be there,” she said. “And when you play on it, when you do things about it, when you actually get in there and you do it, it makes you even appreciate life even more.”