(KTXL) — A series of stabbings in less than one week in Davis left two men dead and one woman critically injured, and police have announced the arrest of a suspect in the three crimes.
The attacks led to an increase in police patrols, many of the city’s businesses closing earlier, and the UC Davis campus modifying its night classes, all in the hopes of avoiding another attack.
On the afternoon of May 4, Davis Police announced the arrest of a suspect in all three crimes.
Here is what we know about the victims.
David Henry Breaux
David Henry Breaux, 50, was well known in the community as the “Compassion Guy.” He was instrumental in the installation of the Compassion Bench in 2013, and community members contributed to a growing memorial at the site.
He was killed on April 27 at Central Park and there were no eyewitnesses, according to Davis Police.
Community members who knew him said he would stand on the corner and ask people what compassion meant to them. A notebook he carried with him held people’s responses.
“He wrote everybody’s response in notebooks. He had so many notebooks,” Becky Marigo, with Paul’s Place, said.
Harmony Scopazzi, with Paul’s Place, the Davis Community Meals and Housing, said that Breaux moved into their shelter in 2013 to write a book with everyone’s responses.
“Our kids are in the book, we’re in the book, he included everybody,” Marigo said.
Breaux continued to include the whole community in spreading that message. Marigo said his compassion bench is filled with words people said within those pages.
Karim Abou Najm
Karim Abou Najm, 20, was a student at UC Davis who was just over a month away from graduating with a bachelor’s degree in computer science with honors.
Police said he was killed on April 29 at Sycamore Park, just over a mile away from Central Park. A person “exchanged words” with the suspect
He moved to the U.S. from Lebanon in 2018 and was at Davis Senior High School prior to joining UC Davis.
The university said Najm mentored undergraduate computer science students and on-boarded student researchers to Miller Lab at UC Davis.
While enrolled at UC Davis, Najm worked as a full-time software engineer and worked several internships.
“Karim was a compassionate, smart, and caring young man who left us too soon,” the university said. “He’s a loving son, brother and grandson. He meant the world for his family.”
An endowment to help undergraduate students who are doing research was created in his honor. Named the Karim Majdi Abou Najm Memorial Undergraduate Student Research Award, it will exist in perpetuity once it reaches the endowment minimum of $50,000.
Kimberlee Guillory
Davis Police originally did not identify the woman who was stabbed on May 2, but in a news conference on May 4, police said her name was Kimberlee Guillory, 64.
The attack against her happened near 2nd and L streets where an unhoused community lives; it’s also about a half mile from Central Park.
Police said several 911 calls were made, including from the victim, who told emergency officials that the person “stabbed her more than one time through the tent.”
Police added that the attacker “interacted” with a group of people beforehand, with witnesses saying that he was “ducking behind trees” before leaving.
The person later came back and attacked the woman until she started yelling, according to police.
She was taken to the hospital.
