California College Town Rocked by Stabbings That Remain a Mystery

A placid Northern California school city has been rocked by a collection of stabbings wherein two individuals have been killed and a 3rd critically wounded in lower than every week.

The police in Davis, Calif., a group of about 70,000 individuals west of Sacramento, have been asking for the general public’s assist since a 50-year-old man was discovered lifeless with stab wounds on Thursday within the metropolis’s Central Park. Two days later, a College of California, Davis scholar was stabbed to dying in a unique park.

The most recent assault occurred on Monday night time, severely injuring a girl sleeping in a homeless encampment close to railroad tracks simply east of downtown. In a 911 name shortly earlier than midnight, the girl informed dispatchers that she had been stabbed via the wall of her tent. Witnesses reported seeing a person fleeing the scene. The lady was hospitalized and in crucial however steady situation on Tuesday.

It stays unclear whether or not all three assaults have been dedicated by the identical particular person, the police stated, however the descriptions supplied by witnesses in the latest two stabbings are comparable. The authorities are in search of a skinny, curly haired younger man, between 5 toes 6 inches and 5 toes 9 inches tall, sporting a darkish sweatshirt and black Adidas pants.

The Monday night time stabbing triggered a shelter-in-place order within the metropolis and throughout the U.C. Davis campus that lasted till simply earlier than daybreak on Tuesday as officers scoured the group’s streets and yards with drones and police canines, stated Lt. Dan Beckwith, a spokesman for the Davis Police Division.

Murder is “extraordinarily uncommon” in Davis, Lieutenant Beckwith stated. Information from the Police Division’s web site signifies that the final murder inside metropolis limits occurred throughout an incident of home violence in late 2019.

“I’ve been with the division arising on 40 years now,” stated the Davis police chief, Darren Pytel, in a information convention on Tuesday as he urged the general public to be vigilant after darkish and keep away from venturing alone into poorly lit locations. “That is completely different.”

The primary assault killed David Henry Breaux, 50, a Stanford College graduate who slept outside and undertook a yearslong mission as “Compassion Man,” wherein he solicited definitions of compassion from the general public, usually on the in style farmers market on the park the place he was discovered lifeless. Lieutenant Beckwith stated {that a} passer-by on the park, which is a brief stroll from the campus, found Mr. Breaux’s lifeless physique slouched on a bench at 11:20 a.m. on Thursday. Emergency medical employees decided that he had died of a number of stab wounds.

The Saturday assault killed Karim Abou-Najm, 20, a senior who majored in pc science at U.C. Davis and had simply posted excitedly on social media about his analysis and pending commencement this spring.

The son of a college member, Mr. Najm was killed at 9:14 p.m. in Sycamore Park, in a extra residential neighborhood that was additionally a brief distance from campus, the lieutenant stated.

“A resident had heard a disturbance within the park, and after they went out to verify they discovered the sufferer on a concrete bike path and noticed a person fleeing the scene,” he stated. “The assault was comparable in nature — very brutal — and the sufferer had been stabbed a number of instances.”

The witness in that assault had briefly exchanged phrases with the assailant, and was working with detectives to attract up a police sketch, Chief Pytel stated.

The back-to-back assaults have shocked Davis, an prosperous, liberal group about 15 miles from the state capital that’s identified for its public faculties, civic activism and intensive community of motorcycle paths. “This can be a city the place individuals know one another,” Lieutenant Beckwith stated.

“Everyone seems to be nervous and scared and in full shock,” stated Lucas Frerichs, a Yolo County supervisor and former mayor of Davis.

“David Breaux was beloved,” he stated, looking for phrases to explain the group’s trauma. “He was most likely one of the vital peaceable, mild individuals you’ll ever come throughout. Karim Abou-Najm — additionally peaceable and delicate. And promising. He grew up right here. And a homeless lady, so weak. And the violence of those assaults.”

Lieutenant Beckwith stated that proof from the crime scenes was being processed and that the F.B.I. and California Division of Justice had been referred to as in to help with the investigation, together with different police and sheriff’s departments in Sacramento and Yolo counties, together with campus police.

“We’re all arms on deck,” he stated.