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Vigil for mother stabbed to death in Cal Anderson Park

SEATTLE — Her life was cut short in a Seattle park and her family is calling for an end to the violence.

Rayshauna Webber had just turned 25 last month before she was stabbed early Sunday morning at Cal Anderson Park.

Her suspected killer was arrested in Tacoma.

The family said they wanted to pick a spot where she worked and where she was known.  So they came to 23rd Avenue South and South Jackson Street in the parking lot of the Starbucks where she worked.

This is a difficult time for all who knew and loved her.

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"She was like a second daughter to me," said Greg Beavers. "I mean she would not let nobody do nothing or talk bad about me or any of her family members. She was very protective but loving."

Tears fill Beavers' eyes as he talks about the niece he loved and lost in a violent stabbing that he is struggling to understand.

"I mean I could live to be 150 years old and never understand how this would happen to someone so loving," said Beavers.

According to court documents, Webber was with a couple of female friends in Cal Anderson Park just before 3 Sunday morning. They pulled out cigarettes and a man offered them a light. When they turned the man down, he allegedly went after two of them with a knife.

Webber was mortally wounded.  She died later at Harborview Medical Center.

The suspect, 50-year-old David Lee Nichols, was a no-show at this bail hearing Thursday. Seattle police say surveillance video and eyewitness statements led them to Nichols in Tacoma.  He told investigators he noticed blood on his knife and tossed it out the window as he drove away.

Until now, Nichols' criminal history involved only minor infractions.

This memorial on Pine Street near the fatal attack is affecting those who live and work on Capitol Hill.  They are lamenting the violence here that claimed the life of a woman they did not know.

"It's pretty horrendous and very sad," said Fox Dugan, an 8-year Capitol Hill resident.  "I grew up in neighborhoods like this. And no one wants neighborhoods like this."

"I mean this is what, the third incident that's happened recently, I think," said Terrance Johnson, who has lived on Capitol Hill for a couple of years. "And so it's kind of scary to think about. That the neighborhood's kind of going in this direction with all the people coming here."

"No, I'm not surprised that it happened in Seattle, just in general," said Jessy Forsmo-Shadid who works on Capitol Hill but lives in Shoreline.   "It's not really safe to be out here at night which is why I, like, I only come around here in the morning, midday. But like at night I'm not too trusting."

Now a family is left to mourn a woman who turned 25 just three weeks ago.

"It's hard on her mother," said Beavers. "Hard on her Dad. Hard on her sisters and brothers because she was the oldest. And they looked up to her. And we all loved her."

Webber also leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter.

The man suspected of killing her is being held at the King County Jail on $2 million bail.

The King County prosecutor has until Monday to decide whether to charge him with her murder.