Friends And Family Hold Vigil For Victim Of Hollywood Stabbing
HOLLYWOOD (CBSLA.com) — Friends and family held a candlelight vigil Monday for the woman stabbed to death while taking a picture at a popular Hollywood tourist attraction.
Efforts are reportedly underway to increase security along Hollywood Blvd. after 23-year-old Christine Calderon of Lynwood was attacked by three transients outside the Hollywood & Highland entertainment complex Tuesday evening.
Investigators say Calderon was stabbed in the torso while a friend was restrained from helping her, after the men demanded she give them $1 for taking their picture.
She was transported to a local hospital where she died from her injuries.
For the first time the victim's mother came to the area where her 23-year-old daughter, the youngest of six children, was killed.
"I was getting weak, this weird feeling, and I couldn't breathe and I couldn't really move," said the victim's mother, Yolande Tassin. "And then the tears, the pain, it's like a pressure."
"This is a tourist attraction," said Darlene Varela, a family friend. "Where was all the security?"
According to Captain Beatrice Girmala of the LAPD Hollywood Division, Chief Charlie Beck will detail extra resources and patrols for the heavily populated tourist area Tuesday morning.
"More specialized units out here, more black and whites, more foot beats, more bike patrols" and more outreach by officers specifically trained to reach out to the homeless and transient population will be among the added resources, Girmala said.
Dustin James Kinnear, 26, was charged with Calderone's murder. Alleged accomplice Jason Joel Wolstone, 33, was charged with assault by means likely to produce bodily injury and two counts of accessory after the fact, and Brian Joseph Widdows, 34, was charged with two counts of accessory after the fact.
All three men pleaded not guilty Thursday and are being held in jail.
Los Angeles police said all three suspects have prior records.
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