"A martyr for compassion": Davis community grieves death of "Compassion Guy" slain in stabbing
DAVIS -- The man murdered at Central Park in Davis on Thursday has been identified as David Breaux. The City of Davis says the 50-year-old was known as the "Compassion Guy."
"We may never have exchanged more than 100 words in 15 years, but every one of them was delivered with such grace and such love and such feelings of humanity," said Kevin Weedon who lives in Davis.
Breaux helped create the Compassion Corner Earthbench on the corner of 3rd and C Streets in Davis in 2013.
"This bench and this sculpture became his space and where he would have these conversations," said campus minister at UC Davis Will Klier.
A man devoted to compassion is now the victim in a homicide. Police said he was stabbed to death at Central Park in Davis, directly across the street from his compassion corner.
"I cannot understand how anybody could get in a position with David that that would be the outcome," said Weedon.
There are still a lot of questions surrounding how Breaux died. But, for David, there was always only one question: What is compassion?
"It's just unfathomable what happened," said Judy Catambay, who lives in Davis. "I think everyone is in shock because it goes against everything he stood for."
David was a fixture in the Davis community. He even helped swear in now-former mayor Robb Davis in 2016.
The City of Davis said that David was a Stanford graduate who published a book about compassion. It was a collection of writings of anonymous community members filling in the blank on what compassion is to them.
"I would like to believe that every one of those definitions of compassion is David's definition of compassion as well," said Brennan Bird, who had been friends with Breaux for 15 years.
David, Bird, and Mark Rivera -- a mosaic artist -- all worked together to create the Compassion Bench.
"Collectively, there [are] 233 bottle bricks in this bench, over 100 pounds of trash that was sequestered by the community," said Bird. "We had a day where we shut down this street and had a natural building work party to build the bench."
Bird called David a martyr for compassion and hopes his death brings more awareness to the importance of extending compassion to others.
"Not only was he spreading the message of compassion, but he also was providing the opportunity for other people to share compassion with him," Bird said. "He was a martyr for compassion."
David may now be gone, but his message of compassion will live on in Davis.
"I do not know if he had a house to go to, but he had a home and it was in Davis," said Weedon. "It was in the hearts of the people."
The community is holding a memorial for David at the Compassion Corner Earthbench located on 3rd and C Streets from 7:30-9 p.m. on Sunday.
Police still have made no arrests in the homicide but are investigating what happened. If you know anything, call Davis police.