Northern California town on edge after second fatal stabbing in a week

DAVIS, Calif.  —  The FBI has joined the investigation of two fatal stabbings in Davis that occurred last week, a rare outbreak of violence that has stoked fear and anxiety in the usually laid-back Northern California college town.

In the most recent attack, officials say a young man was slain Saturday after a confrontation at a park about a mile from the UC Davis campus. Officials and friends identified the victim as Karim Abou Najm, a graduating senior at UC Davis who had taken to social media recently to express his excitement at landing a job working as a software engineer.

News of his death sent a shiver through the rural community of nearly 70,000 — about half an hour’s drive west of Sacramento — many of whom were still reeling from the stabbing last week of a well-known local figure. Police stepped up their patrols and asked the FBI to help in their investigation.

A source who was briefed on the investigation said the FBI and the Department of Justice will be helping to expedite DNA analysis from both crime scenes.

“Many of us are concerned, scared and angry,” members of the Davis City Council said in a joint statement posted online. “The safety of our community has been violated and two individuals have lost their lives.”

Hours after Abou Najm’s stabbing, police released a description of a man who’d been seen leaving the scene: a younger light-skinned male, between 5 feet 7 and 5 feet 8, with long, loose curly black hair. He was last seen riding a men’s bike with straight handlebars while wearing a white hat, a light-colored T-shirt and a button-up shirt over it.

Davis police spokesman Lt. Dan Beckwith said Sunday that the department began receiving tips from the public after the most recent “brutal attack.” One killing was “extremely uncommon here,” he said, much less two in the same week.

But, he said, despite the similarities between the two stabbings, there is no definitive evidence to suggest a connection between the killings.

“We have to operate on facts and right now we don’t have any factual information to link these two,” he said.

Officers made several arrests near Central Park in the wake of the first stabbing, which fueled speculation online that police had a suspect in custody. But the people detained were wanted in other crimes, not the stabbing, Beckwith said.

After the most recent slaying, police arrested a 30-year-old Davis male person of interest about five blocks from where Abou Najm’s body was found because he matched the suspect’s description, according to Beckwith.

Investigators served several search warrants in connection with the arrest, but have not charged the man. He remains in custody on an unrelated warrant.

“At this point, we do not have additional information to link him to the crime,” Beckwith said.

The first victim, David Henry Breaux, 50, was found about 11:30 a.m. Thursday in the town’s Central Park, home to its well-known farmers market. He was discovered at a picnic bench near a tree-shaded playground, sitting in a way that made it appear as though he might have been asleep, bystanders later told police. Mothers and their children climbed the play structures nearby, never suspecting anything was amiss. But at least one person noticed that something was off and called for a welfare check.

When officers arrived, they found Breaux was dead from several puncture wounds.

Police did not immediately reveal a time of death, and spent much of Thursday afternoon canvassing the area for witnesses and digging through trash cans looking for evidence.

Breaux, a Stanford University graduate, was recognized around town and informally known as the “Compassion Guy” for his habit of extolling people to embody a spirit of compassion.

In 2013, Breaux worked with community members and the city to erect a “Compassion Corner Earthbench.” The bench, to which many contributed ceramic tiles, celebrated the value of compassion. He interviewed visitors to the bench about their views on kindness and empathy, as part of his weekly YouTube video series.

The community — which hadn’t had a murder since a domestic violence killing in 2019 — reacted with horror. A vigil was planned for Sunday evening.

“People are scared, rightfully so, anxious,” Beckwith said.

In the hours and days that followed his death, tributes for Breaux began to pour in on social media.

“We will miss you David,” one woman wrote on the Police Department’s Facebook page. “I always felt a sense of peace as I passed you. I will always see your face on that corner.”

Davis Mayor Will Arnold called Breaux’s death “utterly and completely devastating” and said he would be missed.

“Many of us knew David. We talked with him. We shared in his vision for a kinder world. We connected on what it means to be human and humane,” Arnold said in a social media statement. “David was gentle and kind, soft-spoken and thoughtful, brilliant and selfless.”

In a statement, police said they increased their patrols in the area, and urged people to be aware of their surroundings and to report any suspicious behavior.

Tragedy struck again on Saturday about 9:15 p.m., when police found another stabbing victim in a nearby park, close to an elementary school.

This time, a neighbor heard some kind of disturbance and went outside to investigate. The neighbor found the victim, Abou Najm, with multiple stab wounds. Abou Najm was pronounced dead at the scene. Hours after the encounter, police announced that they were on the lookout for a suspect who was last seen fleeing the scene on a men’s bicycle with straight handlebars.

By this time, much of the community was in a state of shock.

The town, which is surrounded by fields of sunflowers and tomatoes and orchards of almonds and peaches, is said to be so safe that many residents don’t lock their doors and young children frequently bike or walk to elementary school alone. Although long a mecca for bike thieves, and also a frequent target for “porch pirates” stealing packages, violent crime is rare. Many residents reacted to the news of the slayings with fear, warning each other not to walk or bike alone until the crimes were solved.

Some also expressed frustration that police had waited so many hours to notify the public that a knife-wielding killer appeared to be on the loose.

“The city needs to answer for why it took 11 hours for *any* notice to be made to the public,” one man posted on the town’s Facebook page.

Davis High School officials offered their condolences to the family of Abou Najm, a 2020 graduate. Abou Najm decided to stay in town for college, enrolling at UC Davis. In a recent post on his LinkedIn page, he wrote that he was supposed to graduate in June and had received a job offer as a software engineer across the country for the podcast and audiobook company Audible, where he had interned.

According to his UC Davis online biography, Abou Najm was a double major in computer science and cognitive science, with a minor in mathematics. In his down time, he enjoyed creative writing and writing reviews of novels.

The university said in a statement posted to its Facebook page that it “shares in concerns over safety in our community and urges students and residents to be aware of their surroundings and call campus or city police should they have any information to help solve these crimes.”

On Sunday morning in Sycamore Park, the site of the second stabbing, police crime scene tape had been taken down, leaving few traces of the brutal attack except for a small area next to a bike path where a crime-scene cleanup crew had scattered gravel to soak up blood stains. Three plastic strips from a defibrillator that paramedics used to try to revive the victim lay abandoned in the grass.

Davis resident Kim Brennan, 34, said she was driving home from her job as a hospice nurse about 9:45 p.m. the night before and saw a phalanx of officers in the park, along with an ambulance leaving the scene.

She stood by the patch as residents walked their dogs through the shady park. One couple and their dogs brought roses clipped from their garden to lay at the scene. Nearby, two Davis police cruisers drove slowly through the now-quiet streets.

Jany reported from Los Angeles and Garrison from Davis.