A college town in California is on edge after a series of ‘particularly brutal and violent’ stabbings took place over the last week.
Two people were killed in the knife attacks last week, while a third was injured in the city of Davis, prompting the University of California, Davis to ask its students to stay inside and refrain from walking on campus alone.
The first victim was identified as David Henry Breaux, who was found unresponsive in a city park before noon on Thursday, April 27.
‘He was slouched over on one of the park benches, where it appears that he normally sits and/or sleeps at night,’ Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Police quickly realized Breaux suffered from ‘very serious stab wounds,’ and was the ‘victim of a very violent attack.’
According to the police chief, Breaux was homeless but well known in the community. He lived in Davis for over a decade and was a ‘regular fixture.’
‘Many community members spoke about his positive and lasting impact on the community,’ Pytel said.
The second attack happened two days later on April 29. A Davis resident reported a ‘disturbance’ in Sycamore Park around 9.14pm.
‘The resident went outside to investigate and found an adult with what appeared to be multiple stab wounds,’ Pytel said. According to the police chief, the witness also had a ‘short interaction with the suspect, who fled.’
The second victim was identified Karim Abou Najm, a 20-year-old student at UC Davis and a graduate of Davis High School. He was on his way back from an undergraduate awards ceremony, his family told KCRA.
The most recent stabbing took place on Monday evening at a homeless encampment, when a woman was stabbed several times through her tent.
The victim, who survived the attack, managed to call 911 herself and give investigators a brief description of her attacker.
‘The latest information that I have is that she did have several stab wounds, had surgery, and is currently in the ICU in critical but stable condition,’ Chief Pytel said.
Investigators are not certain that all three attacks are connected, but noted that the description of the suspect from witnesses appeared to match.
Additionally, the first attack appeared similar due to its ‘particularly brutal and violent’ nature, which Police Chief Pytel said differed greatly from more common knife attacks that police are used to seeing.
‘There were many and very significant knife wounds,’ Pytel said.
Meanwhile, authorities at UC Davis are adjusting safety policies and asking students to stay inside until the suspect has been caught.
‘The campus community feels anxious and frightened right now,’ UC Davis Chancellor Gary May said on Tuesday. ‘We’re all the same community in the end. So what happens in one place obviously impacts the other greatly.’
UC Davis has about 40,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, which make up a significant portion of the population of the small city located 15 miles west of Sacramento.
‘We have a lot of students who live off campus in the city of Davis, so we are providing them with all-day transportation to and from residence anywhere on campus’ UC Davis Police Chief Joe Farrow said on Tuesday.
The school’s police said ‘hundreds if not thousands’ of students had already made use of the service since it was implemented.
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