Mother who asked couple to stop doing drugs outside her apartment is stabbed to death; Arrest made

A 27-year-old woman in California was arrested for allegedly fatally stabbing a mother of three who told her and a man doing drugs to move away from her apartment window where her children were sleeping.

Family members identified the victim and said they were planning a vigil at the apartment complex where she was killed on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Autumn Goodwin, right inset, was arrested in the stabbing death in California of Shawna Weems, left inset.

“She would do anything for her kids, to protect them, so that they didn’t have to see things. She was always wanting to protect her kids,” a close friend told LA’s KABC.

The victim’s husband told KABC he was devastated.

“She was my wife,” he told the station. “She was my best friend, my rock, my soul, the mother to my children, just everything.”

The victim’s sister, Hailey Caristy, described her as sassy, fierce, and a “beautiful ray of sunshine.”

“Her kids were her ultimate pride and joy,” Caristy told KCAL. “Just seeing a mom so devoted to her children the way my sister was, it was just so amazing and refreshing.”

The stabbing happened on Monday in the 1000 block of South Gilbert Street in Hemet, police said in a news release. Hemet’s about 90 miles east of Los Angeles.

A witness told KCAL News it started with a shouting match, and the alleged attacker took off in an RV. The Hemet Public Safety Communications Center received several calls at 12:35 a.m. about a disturbance.

Police found the victim suffering from several stab wounds and tried to save her, but she died at a hospital. The suspect was arrested about two blocks from where the stabbing happened on Friday, police said.

A fundraising page said Weems was a mother, a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister and a friend who had her whole life ahead of her. “She lost her life due to a senseless homicide in Hemet,” the post said.

She left behind three children who “will be reminded how much she loved and cared for them.

“Her children will now be forced to grow up without a mom.”

In a Facebook post, Only’one Lena asked the Lord to watch over Weems’ children and family.

“Please bring peace to her family,” the post said. “Shawna wasn’t scared to die. But the fact that she did and now her family is living without her is the saddest thing to me.

“God I hope you took her under your wings and I hope that her children and family know that she’s looking over them always.”