Police announced the arrest of a 21-year-old man on Thursday in association with three recent stabbings that left two men dead and one woman injured in the small California college town of Davis.
Carlos Dominguez, a student at the University of California Davis as of last week, could face two counts of homicide and one count of attempted murder, Darren Pytel, chief of the Davis Police Department, said in a press conference.
Dominguez was detained near Sycamore Park at around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, when about 15 people called the police department, reporting that they had seen a person who matched the description of a suspect, Pytel said. After hours of questioning, Dominguez was booked at Yolo County Jail.
Pytel said that evidence indicates all three stabbings are linked and committed by the same person. He alleged that Dominguez used a hunting-style knife, and officers found a knife in his backpack after he was detained. Dominguez lives with roommates, according to Pytel, and they have been cooperative with questioning. He said that he did not know whether the roommates are also UC Davis students.
The three stabbings, occurring across less than a week, rattled the community with some students leaving the UC Davis campus. The first death was reported Thursday, when officers found David Henry Breaux, 50, in downtown’s Central Park, hunched over a bench where he often sat or slept. The second victim, Karim Abou Najm, was discovered Saturday night at Sycamore Park with multiple stab wounds. A homeless woman in her 60s was injured in a Monday stabbing.
Dominguez started at UC Davis in fall 2020 and was enrolled until April 25, when “he was separated for academic reasons,” the university said in a statement.
“We are partnering with law enforcement to provide access to any and all information as part of the investigation,” the university said in a statement issued just before 3 p.m. Thursday. “We are providing support to any students who may have interacted with him. As we learn more and are able to provide updates that do not interfere with the ongoing investigation, we will do so.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
