Woman Stabbed to Death at Mall as Shoppers Watch

A 66-year-old woman was stabbed to death in front of shoppers at the South Bay Galleria at midday Monday by a carjacker who apparently became furious when she refused to give him her car.

Diane S. Bragg of Brentwood was on her way to meet a friend for lunch when she was attacked in her car about 11:30 a.m. in front of the Red Robin restaurant, Redondo Beach Police Capt. Jeff Cameron said.

The assailant apparently had been “waiting for a victim” in front of Nordstrom, and he chose to take Bragg’s Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle, Cameron said. But she fought.

Witnesses said they saw her tumble out of the driver’s side, followed by the attacker, who began stabbing her repeatedly with a folding knife. As 22-year-old Joshua Daniel Lee of Hawthorne jogged away, he was tackled and held by two sign repairmen, whom police called heroic.

One of the repairmen, Jason Campbell, 20, said he and partner Greg McCorkell, 21, noticed Lee when they arrived at the Red Robin at Hawthorne and Artesia boulevards to fix a broken light fixture.

“He had a shaved head and a faint mustache and was wearing a sweatshirt and black pants,” Campbell said. “He was just sitting in front of the Nordstrom. We see people like that all the time, so we didn’t think too much about it.”

About 10 minutes later, they heard a woman scream, “Call 911! Someone call 911!”

Campbell and McCorkell ran outside and saw Bragg fall from her car, which was still in drive and rolling toward a valet when the carjacker jumped out and attacked.

Cameron said the suspect’s demeanor was enraged. After stabbing the victim many times, he walked away, leaving the knife and the victim lying in the parking lot in front of stunned witnesses.

Campbell said he and his partner “saw him stabbing and stabbing and stabbing her--and there were all these people just standing around and watching. When the guy was done, he looked at everyone with a puzzled expression, dropped the knife and started to walk away. Then broke into a jog. We ran after him.

“Greg shoved him in the back with all his might, sending the guy into a Pete Rose-style slide on his hands across the parking lot,” he said. “He was lying on the ground and we were crouched over him with clenched fists like we were going to sock him up.”

A few minutes later, he said, the police arrived “and me and my buddy went back to work in the restaurant.”

On their way back to work, they heard an officer ask the suspect, “Why’d you do it?”

“The guy was up against a wall,” Campbell said, “and I heard him answer, “.. . . she didn’t take me seriously. . . .”

“If only someone would have thrown a purse or a cell phone at the guy’s head, that lady would still be alive,” McCorkell said. “But nowadays people just care about themselves.”

Lt. Joe Leonardi said Bragg was rushed by ambulance to County-Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, where “extraordinary means were used to try to save her.”

Investigators later found a small folding knife in the roadway, along with Bragg’s high heel shoes and sunglasses.

“This is a coldblooded murderer who shouldn’t be out on the streets,” he said. “We expect murder charges to be filed against him before the end of the week.”

As for the two young men who work for Corona-based Excel Lighting and Sign Services, Cameron said, “We want to recognize those guys. What they did was pretty heroic.”

Bragg’s neighbors expressed shock that the woman they had waved hello to as she walked her dog around the block Monday morning had been killed.

“South Bay Galleria in the middle of the day--horrible, just horrible,” said neighbor Lawrence H. Kraser. “It could have been any one of us.”