On January 13, 2022, while working inside the Croft House furniture store in the 300 block of North La Brea Avenue, 34-year-old Shawn Laval Smith entered the store and attacked 24-year-old Brianna Kupfer, a UCLA student working alone at the store, with a knife.
Kupfer received 46 sharp-force injuries from the attack, including 11 stab wounds to her chest, 2 to her abdobmen, 1 to her pelvis, and 7 to her arms. She was also sliced in at least 20 places on her body. Kupfer died from blood loss. Kupfer begged for her life as Smith taunted her while he stabbed her to death.
Shawn Laval Smith, a transient man with a history of mental illness and a lengthy criminal record that spanned across the country, was charged with murder. He was later arrested in Pasadena.
