"This has been terrible," Shell's cousin Steven Frieson said, "and I hope she did not die in vain."
The candlelight vigil was the second time in 12 hours that family members, friends and co-workers gathered in downtown to honor the 70-year-old Shells.
"You were her family. Y'all saw her on the holidays when we didn't," Frieson told Shell's colleagues, referring to her work at the hospital.
Shells worked at L.A. County-USC Medical Center for nearly four decades. She was hospitalized after the attack and died three days later.
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"For 38 years she put her heart and soul into being a nurse, to caring for the community around her," Frieson told reporters.
Shell's co-worker and friend Lelieth Middleton knew her for more than 40 years.
"She was a kind person, a loving person" Middleton said.
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