Community remembers victims one year after first Davis stabbing
DAVIS - Saturday marked one year since the first of three stabbings rocked the Davis community. The community is still healing one year later and some people were getting emotional looking back and talking about the victims.
"It was a nightmare. It was the scariest time of our lives," said Davis resident Connie Saint.
In the wake of fear, students say they opted for driving instead of the usual walking or biking, not knowing when the next stabbing could happen.
"Just on edge, nobody knew what was going on and it was scary, a guy just walking around stabbing people," said Davis resident Chad Ries.
"It was pretty scary. I know the stabbing happened obviously in this park," said UC Davis grad student Damieka Thomas.
The first victim, David Breaux, was found dead on a bench in Central Park. People say he was well known in the community as the "compassion guy."
"He was always in this park and you would always see him so it's kind of sad to not see him around. He was like a really nice guy and he would talk to people and ask them what their definition of compassion is," said Thomas.
"Losing David was really really hard and, of course, the other gentleman. But David hit everyone really hard because we all knew him I remember him stopping and asking me about compassion," said Saint.
The second victim, UC Davis student Karim Abou Najm, was killed just two days later while riding his bike. Then a third woman, Kimberlee Guillory, was stabbed a few days after that while asleep in a tent, but she survived.
"I think Davis is a little soft on crime especially when it comes to mental health details and they need to do a much better job in a neutral zone," said Ries.
The suspect, Carlos Dominguez, was expelled for academic reasons.
"I know a lot of people just didn't go to school for a little while," said Thomas.
"I do feel like we've come back it feels safe and it's always been a very strong community so I feel like we've healed maybe in our own way," said Saint.
The city will be coming together to honor the lost lives and unveil a memorial bench on Monday.
Dominguez is scheduled to be in court on June 18 for a trial-setting conference. He entered a not-guilty plea.