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January 28 - February 25, 2022 Volume 30, Issue 56
Arrest Made in Murder of Brianna Kupfer Shawn Laval Smith in police custody B y S am C atanzaro Police have arrested a man suspected of the murder of Brianna Kupfer, a Pacific Palisades woman working at a furniture store in Hancock Park. On Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) announced that Shawn Laval Smith as the suspect in the January 13 murder of 24-year-old Kupfer. On Wednesday around 11:50 a.m. Smith was arrested by the Pasadena Police Department in the area of Fair Oaks and Colorado Boulevard. Kupfer was working at Croft House, a furniture business located on the 300 block of North La Brea Avenue, at the time of the murder. A graduate of both Brentwood High School and the University of Miami, she had been working on a degree in architectural design at UCLA. The LAPD says Kupfer immediately had
a bad feeling when Smith walked into the store. “She sent a text to a friend saying there was someone inside the location that gave her a bad vibe. Regrettably, that person sees the text immediately,” said LAPD Lieutenant John Radtke. Around 15 minutes later, a customer discovered Kupfer stabbed to death. Police say there is no known motive. The Smith was seen leaving the store through the backdoor and fleeing into an alley, heading in the direction of La Brea and Oakwood avenues. Riley Rea, a co-owner of the furniture store, told the Los Angeles Times that Kupfer had been working at the business for just over a year and she was intelligent, poised and well-liked by her peers, noting, “she was mature beyond her years.” “I’m absolutely devastated for her and her family,” Rea said. “It just seems so disgusting and unexpected. Really there are no words to say how shocked we are to lose such a wonderful person.” Over the past few years, various police departments across the country
Photo: LAPD Shawn Laval Smith seen at a 7-Eleven shortly after the death of Brianna Kupfer.
Brianna Kupfer
Photo: LAPD
have arrested Smith. In 2020, Covina police arrested him for a misdemeanor of receiving stolen property not prosecutors did not press charges. Smith also appears to have been released on a $50,000 bond in South Carolina in connection to a 2019 arrest on suspicion of firing a weapon into an occupied vehicle, the NY Post reported. In addition, in 2016 Smith pleaded guilty to attacking a Charleston police officer “but it was not immediately clear what sentence
he was given in the case that was closed in 2018,” the Post adds. “I heard his rap sheet is much worse than that, but that tells you that somebody is not doing their job and there needs to be a change,” Kupfer’s father Todd told the Post. “We all recognize that this could have happened to anybody’s child. It’s just senseless. My daughter was a completely innocent victim and there was 100 percent no provocation.”
Bonin Announces He Will Not Seek Reelection Councilmember cites chronic depression in Wednesday announcement B y S am C atanzaro Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin has announced that he will not be running for reelection this summer. Bonin announced his decision Wednesday evening, in both a series of Tweets and a YouTube video. “I have decided not to seek reelection to Los Angeles City Council. This is a very tough decision for me, this is a very personal decision for me, it’s one I have struggled with and I have wrestled with a lot the past couple of days. But I make it today with a sense of clairity and a sense of confidence and a sense of purpose of what’s next,” Bonin said. In his announcement, Bonin said that the decision was ‘deeply personal”. “My decision is not political, my decision is deeply personal. I have struggled with chronic depression for a very long time, long before I ever ran for office,” Bonin said. “Over the past couple of years, this job has demanded that I focus my time and my energy on the negative and fight the negative, instead of creating the positive. And that has taken a toll
on me. Physically, emotionally and spritually. And it has taken a toll on my family. It is time for me to recharge. I need to focus on health. I need to focus on wellness. I need to spend more quality time with my family.”The announcement comes just a week after the Los Angeles City Clerk ruled that a recall effort against Bonin did not have enough verifiable signatures to move forward to trigger a May special election. Bonin would, however, have had to compete in the regularly scheduled municipal election on June 7. Bonin said that he was “confident” that he could have won a third term, but came to the decision not to run after the recall came to a halt last week. “Until this recall failed the other day, it was full speed ahead for my reelection. But once the recall died, it gave me an opportunity to finally sit back and reflect on what is right for me and what’s right for my family. And that is why I am not running for reelection,” Bonin said. The recall effort against Bonin was the second time Bonin has faced a recall effort. In 2017-2018, constituents launched an unsuccessful recall effort in response to increased congestion resulting from lane reductions championed by Bonin. This initial effort, however, was localized to the Playa Del Rey and Mar Vista areas. This latest effort, however, drew support from across the district from voters frustrated by Bonin’s handling of the homelessness crisis. Critics of Bonin have repeatedly pointed out his refusal to enforce the anti-encampment ordinance and take issue
Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin.
with his policies to deal with the unhoused issue. They claim that the encampments are the cause of crime and violence in CD 11 neighborhoods. In his announcement not to run, Bonin said that he is not going to change course in his time left in office.
Photo: Facebook
“In the time I have left on Council, I am not going to sit down, I am not going to mellow out, and I am not going to shut up,” Bonin said. “I am going to keep on fighting for the housing and services we know can really end homelessness.”