{"id":410022,"date":"2026-07-23T22:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T22:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/410022\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T22:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T22:53:08","slug":"19-year-old-lay-in-wait-stabbed-california-gallery-owner-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/410022\/","title":{"rendered":"19-year-old lay in wait, stabbed California gallery owner, officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A local artist was killed outside the Capitola Mall on Monday in an incident that police described as a \u201crandom act of violence\u201d \u2014 the 73-year-old art gallery manager was a stranger to the 19-year-old accused of suddenly and viciously attacking her, authorities say. <\/p>\n<p>Rachell Summers died after suffering multiple stab wounds, police said. <\/p>\n<p>Court records indicate Tyler Leibelt of Santa Cruz has been charged with murder and several sentencing enhancements, including use of a deadly weapon and killing while lying in wait. <\/p>\n<p>The slaying occurred at 12:47 p.m. near the food court exit of the Santa Cruz County mall, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CapitolaPoliceDepartment\/posts\/pfbid0rxPNc4BhWXpvt4eN9JH96Yyz8oiV9Py5PmaoVUFfGJUro6s7bJo84LasoqFLVAqZl?__cft__[0]=AZZz-r04B0h8cUDBX99q93b7GZrM1Rscz8cZBVEp4MsnCR0KLWCrDq0PfKT4Ky9PQv_TicOEBhQVLp3vgWy2T5Kh2kRbIkuuAgTHHHqLSi1a6LAXEXIXux525RmGSQK9tWnR0iJj1BoQx2NSj7rPxrS5qC_PrHpIYl8eNFO6Fr2UgKabunFTDLob6H-TOWvBx40&amp;__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to the Capitola Police Department<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Police arrived and found Summers injured on a street adjacent to the mall. Officers tried lifesaving measures, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. <\/p>\n<p>Leibelt was found by police about half a mile from the scene, in the 1400 block of 41st Avenue, Capitola police said in a statement. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on the investigation to date, detectives believe this was a random act of violence, and there is no indication that the suspect and victim knew one another prior to the attack,\u201d police said in a <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CapitolaPoliceDepartment\/posts\/pfbid0rxPNc4BhWXpvt4eN9JH96Yyz8oiV9Py5PmaoVUFfGJUro6s7bJo84LasoqFLVAqZl?__cft__[0]=AZZz-r04B0h8cUDBX99q93b7GZrM1Rscz8cZBVEp4MsnCR0KLWCrDq0PfKT4Ky9PQv_TicOEBhQVLp3vgWy2T5Kh2kRbIkuuAgTHHHqLSi1a6LAXEXIXux525RmGSQK9tWnR0iJj1BoQx2NSj7rPxrS5qC_PrHpIYl8eNFO6Fr2UgKabunFTDLob6H-TOWvBx40&amp;__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook post<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Summers managed the Art of Santa Cruz gallery, which is inside the Capitola Mall. <\/p>\n<p>In an Instagram post, the gallery announced it would be closed until Saturday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are mourning the loss of our gallery manager, Rachell Summers,\u201d the post reads. <\/p>\n<p>News of the random, deadly attack shook the beachside community, with residents taking to social media to recall the beloved artist. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is so tragic,\u201d one person commented on the gallery\u2019s post, noting that Summers had recently bid on an orchid print they were preparing for her.<\/p>\n<p>She \u201cwas such a delight to talk with every time I went in,\u201d another person commented. \u201cHer presence will be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Local news station KSBW reported a memorial was set up outside the mall to honor Summers. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou cannot, you cannot process that,\u201d an emotional co-worker, Marilyn Gwynn, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ksbw.com\/article\/capitola-mall-stabbing-rachell-summers\/73223715\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">told KSBW<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s too hard. It\u2019s too hard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A local artist was killed outside the Capitola Mall on Monday in an incident that police described as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31752,6577,7,9,8,163426,163425,2613,13480,164269,236,164268,164270,1498,2489,5931,16220,24602],"class_list":["post-410022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-19-year-old","tag-authority","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-capitola-mall","tag-capitola-police-department","tag-date","tag-facebook-post","tag-leibelt","tag-police","tag-rachell-summers","tag-random-act","tag-santa-cruz","tag-scene","tag-summer","tag-violence","tag-wait"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}