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“We Said a Prayer”: In Final Moments, Boy Comforted Pico Rivera Stabbing Victim

"I was just trying to get God to protect him a little more," the boy said

In his dying moments, an AAA mechanic who was fatally stabbed while working in Pico Rivera, California, on Tuesday was comforted by a 13-year-old boy who stayed by his side and prayed with him.

Devin Zamora said he couldn't believe what he was seeing in his typically quiet neighborhood. The victim was severely injured and bloodied, calling out for help.

The boy, who was walking with his mother after attending a baseball game, called 911, then rushed to the victim's side.

"I bent down on my knees, me and my mom, and we said a prayer, and I got a little closer to him saying, 'I did the Hail Mary.' I was just trying to get God to protect him a little more,'" Zamora recalls.

The victim was 34-year-old Raymond Zabala, an Auto Club battery technician responding to a call from a woman who needed help. He was speaking with the woman outside her home when he was brutally stabbed, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Zabala was a newlywed "loving family man" who had a son two months ago, his co-worker Jesse Mendoza said.

On Wednesday night, family and friends gathered in prayer at a vigil to remember Zabala. They stood with candles near the place where he died, which was across the street from where Zabala had grown up, a longtime friend said.

The man suspected of stabbing him, identified as 39-year-old Tobias Ruben Cabrera, is a transient who may be related to the woman Zabala was helping, sheriff's deputies said.

Cabrera, who deputies say frequents the neighborhood, is considered armed and dangerous. He was described as 5-foot-7-inches tall, weighing about 160 pounds, and rode off on a bicycle after the attack.

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