Residents Still Reeling from Dramatic Arrest

Normally a quiet neighborhood to dozens of families, Pine Avenue in Redlands has, for the moment, become the center of unwanted focus.

On Monday, life changed those who live in the 900 bock of Pine after news broke that 52-year-old Terence Giberson, a member of their community, was accused of victimizing the 4-year-old daughter of one of his neighbors. It launched a two-day onslaught of nationwide media attention.

Worse, the incident has left a dark cloud of doubt and fear over the entire community.

“Now you look at people carefully,” said Lorraine Sealock, one of Giberson’s neighbors. “You look at new people all the time and we ask who they are. You’re just more cautious.”

Redlands Police arrested Giberson on Monday evening, and charged him with two counts of oral copulation/sexual penetration with a child under 10, two counts of forcible lewd acts upon a child and one count of kidnapping to commit another crime.

He pleaded not guilty to all five counts during an arraignment Thursday morning in San Bernardino. His next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 19. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail and is on a suicide watch in prison.

Authorities said just before 7:30 p.m. Giberson abducted the 4-year-old girl from in front of her apartment and took her to his home. Her father, who went searching for her, found the girl nude in Giberson’s apartment, police officials said.

She was calling to him through the apartment window. Giberson was also inside the home and was naked, police officials said.

Even before the news trucks hit the neighborhood, residents had to endure a 30-minute negotiation between police and Giberson, who had locked himself in his home and refused police commands that he surrender. When he finally did, investigators said he was bloody from several self-inflicted wounds and may have tried to take his own life.

“Obviously we’re in shock,” said Gabriel Freitas, another of Giberson’s neighbors. “We’re angry. He was among us.”

The complex, in fact the entire neighborhood, is home to many children. Many of them congregate in front of Frietas' or Sealock’s home. The little girl who Giberson is accused of abducting regularly played with the Frietas children or made chalk drawings in front of Sealock’s home.

“People felt safe,” Sealock said. “Doors were always open. And they still are.”

But heads pop out just a little more often. And parents like Freitas and Sealock, who once tracked the children as they played through the complex, now find themselves almost taking roll to make sure all the children are accounted.

“It hurts,” said Keri Freitas, Gabriel Freita’s wife. “When you hear about these things it really hurts.”