Brianna Kupfer’s parents speak out ahead of her alleged killer’s trial

LOS ANGELES – Opening statements begin Thursday in the murder trial of Shawn Laval Smith, the man accused of killing Brianna Kupfer at a Hancock Park store in 2022. Ahead of the trial, Kupfer’s parents speak about their daughter and her legacy as they hope for closure and justice.

The family had just celebrated the holidays together. Todd Kupfer had remarked that they had a “lucky” family. A few weeks later, their world was turned upside down.

“It’s interesting because you sit here and you’re like, ‘What am I going to say about her?’ and you want to be authentic and real,” Todd Kupfer said. “And all of those things never seem real, when you say she was an angel and she was perfect, right? It doesn’t seem real, but it almost was.”

Todd and Lori Kupfer described their daughter as empathetic and a peacemaker in the family. Today, they say they are constantly reminded that she is gone.

“Your brain honestly wakes up from a nap, from a sleep, and you feel like someone electrocuted you, because your brain suddenly realizes, ‘My daughter is gone,'” Kupfer said.

“You wake up, you think about it. You can’t help it,” Todd Kupfer said. “You walk around, you think about it. You do whatever, it just comes to mind.”

The 24-year-old UCLA graduate was stabbed 26 times and suffered nearly 50 total stab wounds during the attack at the Croft House furniture store on N. La Brea Avenue on January 13, 2022.

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Smith was charged in November 2022 with the murder of Brianna Kupfer, as well as two special circumstances in what authorities called a random attack. He faces life in prison.

Brianna Kupfer was “very kind to her family and never criticized,” her father said. “She led by example. She was a really good girl. A good living example of what we should be more of.”

Her mother, Lori, said she wished she could “go back and spend a day with little Brianna, even when she was a little kid. And just play, do what she wants, and really listen to her. That’s what you miss. You just miss all those unspoken things.”

When asked what kind of legacy he hopes Brianna leaves behind, Todd Kupfer said he hopes people will remember, “That she loved life and she loved people. We met so many people, and people wrote to us… and every single one of them said, ‘Oh my God, she made such a difference in my life.’ So it’s too bad she didn’t get to spend time with more people. But she did.”