Jamara Jones-Sanders was attending an event in 2016 about making zines at Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse in Baltimore when Anthony Day struck up a conversation with her and mentioned linguistics or phonetics.

At the time, Jones-Sanders said, she was studying speech language pathology and audiology at Towson University. The conversation naturally flowed — they shared a lot of interests and values — and the two exchanged information about their social media accounts. Later, she said, they swapped phone numbers.

Jones-Sanders said she was in a partnership with Day for more than five years that later transitioned into a close friendship. She said she considered him part of her “soul family.”

Day, she said, had a deep passion for seeing a better Baltimore.

“He was a peaceful soul,” said Jones-Sanders, 32, an artist and energy healer who works at a small soap company and lives in Jessup. “He was the type of person not only could you make quick friends with him because of his mannerisms and his genuine curiosity — but he also inspired you to learn.”

On Tuesday, Day, 32, was fatally stabbed while working as a distribution technician at McCormick & Co.’s logistics center at the Tradepoint Atlantic Industrial Park in Sparrows Point. Baltimore County Police reported that they are looking for a man who worked at the site as a temporary resource, 50-year-old Andre Ali Hubbard, aka Moab Eleazore Ezekuna-Bey, in his killing.

In a statement, Lori Amos Robinson, a spokesperson for McCormick & Co., said it is “deeply saddened by the assault that resulted in the death of our employee Anthony Day.”

“McCormick is fully cooperating and assisting the Baltimore County Police with this active and ongoing investigation,” said Robinson, who added that the company was unable to provide additional information to protect the integrity of the investigation. “Our primary concern is respecting the privacy of our employee’s family and supporting our employees during this very difficult time.”

Day, of Baltimore, enjoyed bird-watching, gardening and studying the world, Jones-Sanders said. He was part of several Black and multicultural organizations and would carry notebooks on different subjects with him.

She described him as a “good-natured connector of people.”

“You could have conversations in depth with him and feel heard and find it interesting and know that he was being genuine,” she said. “He emphasized the importance of nature in our lives.”

They first started a garden together in 2020 while living in Odenton, growing watermelons, eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs. Day, she said, was inspired when tulsi and rosemary that they did not replant came back.

He liked cooking dumplings, specifically pot stickers, from scratch. That’s along with vegan meatloaf, Jones-Sanders said.

Day watched anime including “Naruto” — he particularly connected with the character Itachi Uchiha — as well as TV shows such as “The Office.” He had an eclectic music taste, she said, and often listened to jazz and ’90s hip-hop.

When Dayvon Love won the Cross Examination Debate Association national championship in 2008 with Deven Cooper — the first team of Black college debaters to do so — he said Day reached out to him for mentorship.

A lot of times, Love said, students will express interest in debate because they think it’s cool. But Day, whom he first only knew as “Buster,” took a serious interest.

“He was quite bright,” said Love, 36, of Edmondson Village, director of public policy for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a grassroots think tank that advances the public policy interests of Black people. “I would say he was one of the smartest students that I’ve ever encountered.”

Day, he said, was a thorough and complex thinker around Black radical politics. He was engaged and recently took part in efforts to develop a local chapter of Black Men Build, Love said.

Love said Day had been willing to go against the grain in some environments where there was groupthink.

“He was committed as anyone to Black people,” Love said. “And so he didn’t feel the urge to be something he was not.”

Brandon Walker, 36, of Upton, recalled that Day had so many brilliant thoughts and ideas that he’d refer to him as “Anthony Books.”

They met through their involvement with Ujima People’s Progress Party, an independent Black worker-led political party that’s seeking to obtain ballot status in Maryland. Day was direct but respectful and nonconfrontational, Walker said.

“I just wish that he was around a little bit longer,” said Walker, a community organizer, advocate and program associate at the Y in Druid Hill.

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