Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz and Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Michel Moore announced a $50,000 reward for information about the suspected killer of UCLA graduate student Brianna Kupfer in a January 18 press conference.
Kupfer, 24, was working alone at the Croft House furniture store in Hancock Park on January 13 when she was stabbed to death; her body was found by a customer 20 minutes later. The suspect has been identified by police as Shawn Laval Smith, 31; Smith was reportedly arrested several times in North Carolina from 2015-18, once in South Carolina in 2019 and once in Los Angeles County in October 2020. After his most recent arrest, Smith was released on $1,000 bail. He is believed to be homeless, armed, and dangerous. The LAPD announced in a statement that the attack was “random” and they do not have a motive at this time.
31-year-old Shawn Laval Smith has been identified in connection with the murder of Brianna Kupfer, which occurred in the 300 block of North La Brea Avenue on January 13, 2022. He should be considered armed and dangerous. If seen do not approach, call 911. pic.twitter.com/jZlESB9l9r
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) January 19, 2022
The reward could be as high $200,000 thanks to public and private donations, Koretz said. He said that Kupfer “embodied everything that is great about Los Angeles and the entire city should grieve over this senseless act” and vowed to “find this vicious criminal.”
Moore said that the suspect entered various businesses before and after the stabbing, so “someone out there knows this man. You need to come forward.”
Dr. Jennifer Botelho, who owns a chiropractor business next to the Croft House, told CBS Los Angeles that the suspect entered her business sometime before the stabbing. “He came in and asked a couple of questions: ‘Do you do orthopedics here?’ What kind of care we provide, and then he left,” she said. “So he was just here for a few minutes.”
Botelho added: “It’s terrifying. It’s horrible. She’s such a young girl. We feel so horrible for Brianna’s family, and hope we can catch this guy.”
Croft House Co-owner Riley Rea told The Los Angeles Times that Kupfer was “mature beyond her years” and had worked at the store for a year. “Really there are no words to say how shocked we are to lose such a wonderful person,” she said.
Kupfer’s father, Todd, told Fox News that Kupfer wasn’t even supposed to be working that day and that usually the store would have at least two employees in the store at a time. He also said that there seems to be a societal focus on “bestowing favor on people that rob others of their rights. We should be celebrating the good in people and trying to recognize that’s the job [politicians] have, is to try and make communities better, to try and make people care more to not tear down communities by exposing them to people that are falling out the bottom, that really don’t care about other human beings and think they can do whatever they like in our society.”
He added that while he’s not sure if politicians themselves are to blame, “we don’t elect them because we think they’re great, we elect them because we think they can do great things. And it shouldn’t be about them, they should want to be in that role because they want to serve the community, and the community needs love and support. People need to understand what should motivate them in their daily life, and it’s all been lost. All we’re doing is trying to divide people and get angry at everything around us and it’s gotta end.”
Todd also called his daughter “a great model, she was very, very caring … she really is the role model. I’m so proud of what she had accomplished.”
A vigil will be held for Kupfer in front of the store on January 20 at 1:30 p.m.
