A 21-year-old who was a student at the University of California, Davis, until last week was arrested on accusations of fatally stabbing two people and wounding another in attacks that terrified the quiet college community, police said Thursday.
Carlos Dominguez was apprehended Wednesday after 15 people reported seeing someone who matched the suspect’s description near a city park where he is accused of stabbing the second victim to death, according to Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel.
Pytel did not reveal a motive for the stabbings, which occurred over several days beginning with the finding of the first body on April 27, and said it was unclear whether Dominguez knew the victims. A 50-year-old homeless guy well-liked in the neighborhood and a 20-year-old UC Davis student were killed. A homeless lady who was assaulted in her tent on Monday night is recuperating.
“He was out wandering a neighborhood where the second homicide had occurred. He had a large knife in a backpack, wearing the same clothes from the third stabbing,” Pytel told a news conference, explaining the circumstances of Dominguez’s arrest. “That’s highly unusual and unique.”
The multiple stabbings over the course of less than a week shattered the town’s sense of safety. Some businesses closed early and college students said they were too frightened even to attend daytime classes on campus.
“A murderer is off the streets, and our families will sleep easier tonight,” Davis Mayor Will Arnold said at the news conference. It wasn’t immediately clear if Dominguez had an attorney to speak on his behalf.
UC Davis officials said in a statement that Dominguez was a third-year student majoring in biological sciences until April 25, “when he was separated for academic reasons.”
He enrolled at UC Davis in the fall of 2020 and previously attended Laney College, a community college in Oakland, California.
Davis is located around 70 miles (112 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco and 15 miles (24 kilometers) west of Sacramento. The city has around 67,000 residents, in addition to over 13,000 students who live on the UC Davis campus.
The first fatality was recorded Thursday when officers discovered David Henry Breaux leaned over a seat in downtown Central Park, where he frequently sat or slept. Karim Abou Najm, the second victim, was found with several stab wounds at Sycamore Park on Saturday night.
All of the stabbings happened within a mile of campus. Police searched an apartment near campus where Dominguez resided with housemates on Thursday.
Pytel stated that police began getting calls regarding a guy matching the suspect’s description on Wednesday afternoon. Officers discovered a “large fixed blade knife” in his rucksack and took him into custody with his agreement for further interrogation.
Dominguez was booked into Yolo County Jail on a weapons violation linked to the knife early Thursday but was not arrested on two charges of homicide and one count of attempted homicide until shortly before Thursday’s news conference.
Pytel said they were zeroing in on the suspect based on other evidence, “but the tips certainly expedited finding him and an arrest, there’s no doubt about that.”
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