Following the outrage over the stabbing death of a 24-year-old Los Angeles woman who was allegedly killed by a homeless suspect while working inside a high-end furniture shop last week, some people who work in the community where the slaying occurred are calling for a bigger police presence and more mental health services.
Brianna Kupfer was inside the Croft House on Jan. 13 when her alleged killer, identified as Shawn Laval Smith, 31, fatally stabbed her and fled. He was arrested Wednesday in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena.
A motive for the killing has not been determined.
WHO IS BRIANNA KUPFER, THE LOS ANGELES STABBING VICTIM?
Shawn Laval Smith had a lengthy rap sheet that included charges in the Carolinas and California.
(Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images )
“We’re furious and we’re all heartbroken,” Rabbi Mendy Cunin, who worships at a Jewish temple two doors down from the furniture shop, told Fox News. “We need to get funding back to the police, and there have to be consequences. A lot of criminals know that a lot of crimes are unpunishable.”
He added that those exhibiting mental illness and who pose a danger to themselves and others should be housed in facilities where they can receive much-needed treatment.
Cunin’s remarks stemmed from efforts by criminal justice advocates to slash police budgets and Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon‘s prosecutorial reforms that have been criticized as too lenient and have spurred two recall efforts by opponents.
A note left with flowers was among the many bouquets left in front of the Croft House furniture shop in Los Angeles where Brianna Kupfer was killed on Jan. 13.
(Fox News Digital)
“Who else can you blame but not the leaders?” one passerby who only gave his name as David said. “Now when I walk here, I look over my shoulder.”
The front of the furniture shop, which sits on busy North La Brea Avenue in the city’s Fairfax District, was covered Wednesday with flowers, candles and notes memorializing Kupfer, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was pursuing a degree in interior design.
“I remember seeing her,” Rabbi Brandon Marshak told Fox News. “She would close up the gate every day. That day, I was driving by her to go to services in the evening, and then somebody said there was a murder.”
Kupfer’s death has shaken the community and came at a time when Los Angeles is experiencing scoring crime rates. Days after she was killed, a 70-year-old nurse died after being attacked at a bus stop outside Union Station while on her way to work.
Earlier this month, a 16-year-old girl was found dead alongside Interstate 110. She is believed to have been murdered.
A makeshift memorial for Brianna Kupfer outside Croft House, the LA furniture store where she worked and was stabbed to death on Jan. 13.
(Fox News Digital)
Homicides in Los Angeles had trended downward since 2006 when 480 people were killed. But the city is on track to meet or surpass the number of murders in 2006, with homicides ticking up in recent years. In 2020, the city experienced 355 killings, and in 2021, there were 397 homicides, according to police figures.
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“A lot of crime has been going on,” Cunin said. “It’s a different time now. We have to put the clock back where it was and further.”
