EXCLUSIVE: Brianna Kupfer’s alleged killer Shawn Smith was caught Wednesday after a pedestrian spotted him sitting on a park bench in Pasadena and called 911, a law-enforcement source told Fox News Digital.
The Los Angeles Police Department announced the arrest on Twitter and said the Pasadena Police Department detained Smith, 31, at around 11:50 a.m. near Fair Oaks and Colorado Boulevard.
UCLA GRADUATE STUDENT’S ALLEGED KILLER ARRESTED IN PASADENA
Smith, who has a rap sheet spanning two coasts, initially gave a fictitious name, the source said. The LAPD sent its fugitive unit with a fingerprint reader to Pasadena and confirmed Smith’s identity with the device.
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)
The LAPD received more than 1,000 tips since launching its investigation into the Jan. 13 stabbing death of the UCLA graduate student, the source said.
FATHER OF SLAIN UCLA GRAD STUDENT BLAMES POLITICIANS FOR CRIME SPIKE
Kupfer, 24, was working as a design consultant at Croft House, an upscale furniture store on North La Brea Avenue, when Smith allegedly strolled in.
The suspected killer of 24-year-old UCLA grad student Brianna Kupfer appeared on surveillance video at a nearby 7-Eleven store buying a vape pen just 30 minutes after her murder.
(LAPD)
She texted a pal that she was getting “bad vibes” from the man – but the friend didn’t immediately see the message, police said.
LOS ANGELES POLICE ID SHAWN LAVAL SMITH AS SUSPECTED KILLER OF BRIANNA KUPFER
About 20 minutes later, a customer entered the store and found Kupfer dead, lying in a pool of blood on the floor.
Aerial images obtained by FOX 11 Los Angeles show police putting him into the back of a police SUV ahead of his expected transfer to LAPD custody.
(FOX 11)
Police said there was no known motive for the attack. Kupfer was alone in the store that afternoon.
Smith was captured on surveillance footage 30 minutes after the slaying calmly buying a vape pen at 7-Eleven.
WHO IS BRIANNA KUPFER, THE LOS ANGELES STABBING VICTIM?
Kupfer grew up in the Pacific Palisades, an affluent Los Angeles neighborhood. After earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami, she returned to her hometown to pursue a graduate degree in interior design.
Her father, Todd Kupfer, said she had dreamed of launching her own clothing line. The day Kupfer was murdered she was supposed to fly to New York for the weekend to celebrate her best friend’s birthday.
“She was a kind soul and was always trying to make herself better and everything around her better,” Kupfer told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday. “She cared about people.”
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The senseless killing has shaken the community and shined a spotlight on the city’s soaring crime rates.
Homicides have soared over the past few years – the highest rate in well over a decade, according to law enforcement.
