California police are seeking help from FBI profilers to determine whether the suspect in a series of stabbings near the University of California – Davis may be a serial killer, Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said Wednesday.
“We’ve been in contact with the FBI, and we’re trying to get profilers on board to make that determination. We’ve done that in the past.… We’re hoping that we get the same support with this one to make that determination,” Pytel said while responding to a reporter’s question about the possibility of a serial killer near campus.
Pytel’s comments came during a Wednesday press conference after three people were stabbed, two fatally, between April 27 and Monday near the UC Davis campus.
Authorities announced that they had detained an unnamed person of interest in the case on Wednesday morning, though police have not said whether that person is a suspect.
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The first stabbing left David Breaux, 50, dead on the morning of April 27. Police located Breaux, who was homeless, “slouched over” on a bench where he “normally sits or sleeps at night,” Pytel explained during the press conference.
Breaux was locally known as the “compassion guy” because he often asked passers-by what “compassion” meant to them, according to FOX 40 Sacramento.
Two days later, UC Davis student Karim Abou Najm, 20, was stabbed to death while walking home through Sycamore Park from an undergraduate awards ceremony sometime after 9 p.m. Najim studied computer science and was set to graduate in six weeks with honors.
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“We moved from Lebanon in 2018 when the situation in Lebanon was a little bit starting to go in not the right direction,” his father, Majdi Abou Najm, told KCRA. “We came here hoping for safety.”
On Monday, a homeless 64-year-old woman was stabbed and remains in critical condition. The victim told police she was knifed multiple times through her tent.
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While the description of the suspect in the second and third incidents is similar, Davis police have not ruled out that the stabbings may be unrelated, Pytel said.
“At this point, we’re still going to look at the person[of interest] and still compare potential DNA,” the police chief said. “The reason is, is the suspect descriptions for the second homicide and the incident last night are substantially similar, but we cannot yet rule out that we are dealing with three separate crimes. So, until we have evidence to conclusively say all three are related, we have to keep our options open.”
He added that the department will do “three separate investigations” into the stabbings and then discuss commonalities between their investigations.
Davis Mayor Will Arnold said the three victims were subject to “brutal violence.”
“Their family and loved ones will never be the same. Our entire community will never quite be the same. Our sense of security and normalcy has been fractured. Our sense of identity is being challenged. However, our sense of unity has never been stronger,” Arnold said.
UC Davis has set up a fund for research in Abou Najm’s name.
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