DENVER (KDVR/CNN) - A good Samaritan who was beaten to death trying to help others was remembered in Denver. On Tuesday, inside the St. Francis Day Center, a crowd packed a small room where a single candle burns next to a picture of 62-year-old James Farmer Jr.
"James saved a life by giving up his love,” said Tom Luehrs, executive director of St. Francis. Farmer's life and actions are memorialized. “He was a man that cared about other people,” Luehrs said.
Farmer was remembered by those who knew him and by those he helped save.
"I came here to help honor a man that saved my son,” David Brown said. Brown's 18-year-old son and a 19-year-old woman who doesn't want to be identified were walking in the early morning hours on June 16.
"He just walked across the street towards us, and he was walking very fast and aggressively and he just swung,” the female victim said.
They say 28-year old Dejuan Stamps randomly attacked them on the street. “And continued to attack him until my friend was like on the ground and being kicked repeatedly in the head. I tried to get the attacker off, and the attacker turned to me and punched me," the woman said.
The attack was all taking place outside the car Farmer was sleeping in. Farmer, a veteran, was sleeping in the vehicle to save money to send back to his family in Seattle, his family said.
The teens say Farmer stepped out, grabbing a piece of wood out of his trunk to help. "I think I would just thank him. I'm just very grateful and aware that he sacrificed his life," the woman said.
Police say when they arrived, Stamps was on top of Farmer, beating him to death "It's a tragedy that I'll never forget, that my son will never forget and I hope that his family knows that we are here remembering him with honor," Brown said.
Farmer’s sacrifice not lost on those who gathered to remember him. Farmer died before reaching the hospital of blunt force injuries, KDVR reports. Several charges have been leveled against Stamps, including first degree murder.
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