'Ray of Sunshine' Mom Is Fatally Shot During Robbery of Bookstore Where She Worked

Remembered as 'beautiful inside and out,' Cinnamon Eades, 38, was shot and killed Tuesday during an armed robbery at the bookstore where she worked

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A beloved California mother of three was fatally shot during an armed robbery at the bookstore where she worked, say police.

On Tuesday at 2:15 p.m., Cinnamon Eades, 38, rang up a purchase made by Favian Marcos Ramirez, 20, at the Liberty Adult Bookstore in Modesto.

Moments later, Ramirez allegedly shot her before grabbing an unknown amount of cash from the register and running out the door, the Modesto Police Department said in a statement.

Officers who raced to the scene found Eades lying behind the counter and suffering from gunshot wounds. She died later at the hospital.

“I have no words, honestly,” Janessa Ramirez, Eades’ 22-year-old daughter, told local station CBS 13. “I’m still in disbelief. It doesn’t feel real.”

On Tuesday night, police arrested Ramirez on charges of murder and robbery.

Ramirez drove to the store in a car he had taken on a test drive from a local used car dealership, police alleged in the statement.

He allegedly left the car outside the bookstore and fled after the shooting.

Investigators were able to identify Ramirez after talking to employees at the used-car dealership, who said he used his ID to take the car for a test drive. They called police when he allegedly failed to return the car.

Joined with a SWAT team and other specialized units, detectives tracked Ramirez to a residence in Ceres, California. When Ramirez left the residence, he saw the units and allegedly fled before he was arrested.

He remains held at the Stanislaus County Jail without bail.

He has not yet entered a plea. It is unclear whether he had retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf.

Favian Ramirez, 20, of Modesto. Modesto Police Department

In the meantime, Eades family and friends are left to mourn the loss of the woman they remember as “a ray of sunshine,” CBS 13 reports.

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More than 200 mourners gathered Wednesday night at a candlelight vigil in Smyrna Park in Ceres.

“She would help someone out if they were in need,” her brother Casey Mackey said, The Modesto Bee reports. “She was just a beautiful person inside and out.”

The fatal shooting left Teresa Robles, Eades’ sister-in-law and the bookstore manager, traumatized, she told CBS 13.

“I can’t be there anymore,” she says. “I won’t be able to set foot in that place again. I worked there for nine years and we’ve never been robbed.”

Eades, who had also worked as a waitress, where she had “lots of customers who loved her,” says Robles, started working at the adult bookstore less than a year ago for the health benefits, she says.

“She got good benefits there,” Steven Segala Jr., Eades’ boyfriend and the father of her 3-year-old son, told CBS 13.

“Initially, I didn’t like the idea, because I don’t think any significant other would want for them to work in a place like that, but I saw the benefits and I trusted her.”

Like others who knew and loved Eades, Segala is devastated.

It’s just not real to lose the person I love most,” he told CBS 13. “My whole life is changing now because I don’t have the person I plan to marry, and the person I plan to move forward with.”

Eades’ friend of 10 years, Mikala Price, who worked with her at different restaurants, says Eades was always positive. “If you were going through something, she would always bring you up,” Price told KCRA 3.

“She was just amazing. Anybody who met her, she would just light up a room,” Price said.