‘Brazen and brutal’: A timeline of the Davis stabbings and arrest of Carlos Dominguez

A week of violence and fear in the quiet Northern California college town of Davis began with police responding on a Thursday morning for a welfare check at a downtown park.

It ended seven days later with police announcing the arrest of a 21-year-old man accused of brutally stabbing three people in a span of five days, two of them fatally, in what police Chief Darren Pytel said fits the definition of serial killings.

Carlos Reales Dominguez, a student at UC Davis up until last week and a native of Oakland, was arrested Thursday on two counts of homicide and one of attempted homicide. Police detained him Wednesday evening, near the scene of the second of three stabbings.

Yolo County prosecutors on Friday announced the filing of murder charges.

Authorities believe Reales Dominguez is the lone assailant in a string of stabbings that killed a 50-year-old man at Central Park on April 27; killed a 20-year-old UCD senior at a different Davis park on April 29; and seriously injured a homeless woman, who was attacked the night of May 1 through the side of her tent at a downtown encampment.

Here is a timeline of key events in the attacks and the apprehension of a suspect.

April 27: First body found at Central Park in Davis

The first public communication by the Davis Police Department on the stabbings came in text messages, email alerts and social media posts sent shortly before noon on Thursday, April 27.

The alerts advised of unspecified police activity and warned people to stay away from Central Park. The park at 401 C St., less than a quarter-mile from the northeast corner of the UC Davis campus, hosts twice-weekly farmers markets and, during summer months, holds family-friendly picnic days.

A Davis Police Department spokesman confirmed early that afternoon that authorities were investigating after a body was found at the park, following a 911 call around 11:20 a.m. reporting an unresponsive man. Officials later said he was found slumped over on a park bench.

Shortly after 3 p.m. the department released a statement announcing the death was being considered a homicide. In an update the following morning, police revealed the man had been the victim of a “significantly violent attack” with “multiple” stab wounds. Pytel would later describe the stabbing as “particularly brazen and brutal.”

Authorities identified the first victim as 50-year-old David Henry Breaux, a beloved community figure known by Davis residents as the “Compassion Guy” who frequented Central Park.

Breaux earned that nickname by asking passersby over the years for their definition of the word “compassion,” penning a self-published book on the topic and spearheading the installation of a ceramic “Compassion Bench,” at Third and C streets, kitty-corner from the park.

City leaders immediately began to mourn Breaux. Mayor Will Arnold in a statement called his death “utterly and completely devastating.”

Alarmed by a gruesome crime in one of the city’s busiest public spaces, Davis police on April 28 deployed additional bike and foot patrol officers to Central Park and the downtown corridor.

Violent crime is exceptionally rare in Davis, a city of about 67,000 people. The Davis Police Department reported one homicide in 2022, according to Sacramento Bee records, and just nine between 2012 and 2021, according to the California Department of Justice.

As it turned out, a violent streak had just begun.

April 29: UCD senior stabbed at Sycamore Park

Karim Abou Najm, a gifted 20-year-old computer science major with an impressive resume of internships and paid university research work, went to the UCD campus Saturday evening, April 29, for a student research project presentation, his father said.

Majdi Abou Najm said his son then hung out with friends before deciding to head home. Karim took a path he’d taken many times before, his father said, through Sycamore Park, which is about a mile north of the university campus and is close to Abou Najm’s home.

Abou Najm planned to graduate this June. He had software engineering jobs lined up to begin his post-college career.

He never made it home.

Police found Abou Najm with multiple stab wounds in the area of Sycamore Lane and Colby Drive, after a nearby resident heard a disturbance and called 911 around 9:15 p.m.

Law enforcement initiated an “exhaustive search” of the area surrounding Sycamore Park, using drones and canines, but could not locate a suspect.

Davis Fire Department personnel declared Abou Najm dead upon arrival at the scene, police said. As with Breaux’s death, Pytel called the UCD student’s stabbing “brutal.”

“He was just six weeks away from graduation,” his father told The Sacramento Bee in an interview. “It’s devastating. Instead of attending his graduation, we’re making arrangements for his departure.”

Unlike the first stabbing at Central Park, police were able to collect statements from eyewitnesses and compiled their first description of the alleged perpetrator: a light-skinned man with long and curly hair, about 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-8, between the ages of 19 and 23.

The suspect took Abou Najm’s bike during the stabbing, Deputy Chief Todd Henry said in Thursday’s news conference announcing the suspect’s arrest. Police found the bike later Saturday night, abandoned near Sycamore Park.

Police could not immediately draw a definitive link between the deaths of Breaux and Abou Najm, and there were no known connections between the two victims.

But the crimes had similarities, officials noted: Both were stabbings, both occurred at parks and both involved male victims.

With two homicide deaths including a student, campus police joined city police in boosting patrols. UC Davis police enlisted private security, and added vans and extra personnel to the university’s Safe Ride program, which gives students, staff and faculty rides home from the campus. UCD also expanded Safe Ride services with earlier hours, starting at 8 p.m.

City police urged people to be vigilant, particularly at night, and to report suspicious activity to the authorities.

May 1-2: Manhunt ensues after homeless woman is stabbed

Pytel, the Davis police chief, acknowledged during a Tuesday, May 2, city council meeting that his department was being flooded by a large volume of community tips after the two deadly stabbings.

This led police not to prioritize a likely sighting of the suspect — about two hours before he allegedly struck again, stabbing his third victim, 64-year-old Kimberlee Guillory, the Monday night in a tent near Second and L streets.

Pytel confirmed a report from earlier in the day published by the Davis Enterprise newspaper: two friends of Guillory reported seeing the suspect about two hours before the third attack, which happened around 11:45 p.m. May 1. They called 911, but authorities did not respond.

“The description that was provided was rather vague and the information was rather vague other than the person was near their camps and appeared to be hiding behind trees at times,” Pytel said at Tuesday’s regularly scheduled council meeting. “Based on the information provided, being less so than information provided in other calls and the number of tips that were coming in, it wasn’t prioritized at the highest level.

“As it turns out, it’s likely that the information was accurate and that probably was the suspect who ended up stabbing the third victim (Monday) night.”

A couple of hours after the initial 911 call, the attacker returned to the camp around 11:45 p.m. and exchanged words with three people before stabbing Guillory multiple times through her tent, Pytel said. Guillory herself called 911 after being stabbed.

Those four witnesses, including the victim, provided a suspect description that was “substantially similar” to the suspect sought in Saturday’s deadly stabbing at Sycamore Park, the police chief said.

Guillory was rushed to Sacramento’s UC Davis Medical Center in critical condition and underwent surgery for multiple stab wounds. Pytel at Tuesday’s council meeting said she was “awake, alert (and) talking.”

Police said the attacker fled the homeless encampment, which is about a half-mile east of Central Park, westbound on Third Street near L Street.

A manhunt followed, lasting into the early hours of Tuesday. Officers combed through yards, alleys and parking lots while ordering downtown Davis and the nearby UCD campus to shelter in place.

No suspect was located, with the search perimeter ultimately broken down and the shelter orders lifted shortly after 5 a.m.

May 2: Fear after third stabbing; UCD puts evening classes online

The stabbing of Guillory at the homeless camp sent shockwaves of fear through the Davis and UC Davis communities, including the many university students, staff and faculty who walk or bike to and from the campus.

Student Nikki Moreno, a UCD student who bikes to campus, said Tuesday morning that she was “freaked out” by the attacks.

Chancellor Gary S. May announced Tuesday afternoon that all UC Davis classes ending after 6 p.m. would be moved to remote learning indefinitely. Following this week’s arrest, May said evening classes will return to campus next Monday.

“Aggie Transfer Day,” an all-day informational event for admitted transfer students that had been scheduled for Friday, was canceled.

A number of other businesses and local institutions shortened their hours or otherwise adjusted schedules. Wednesday’s farmers market at Central Park was canceled “out of an abundance of caution.” Woodstock’s Pizza downtown closed early and cut off delivery service after 8 p.m.

‘Certainly seems reasonable that we’re dealing with the same person’

Criminal experts told The Bee that the three stabbings were likely the work of a local serial killer.

Pytel during his remarks at the city council meeting that it was “more probable than not” that the three stabbings were connected.

“It certainly seems reasonable that we’re dealing with the same person there,” he said.

But the police chief also said authorities could not rule out the possibility that the attacks were not connected, or that two but not all three were connected.

“We have to explore all different options,” he said at the time.

Davis police enlisted the help of homicide detectives from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and Sacramento Police Department, as “biological evidence” retrieved from the crime scenes was taken to crime labs for analysis.

May 3: Suspect detained near scene of 2nd stabbing

Police detained Reales Dominguez, initially taken in as an unidentified “person of interest,” Wednesday at about 5 p.m. a block from Sycamore Park — the site of the second homicide — after 15 separate callers phoned authorities to report seeing a man who matched the suspect description: long, dark curly hair and wearing black Adidas pants with a white stripe.

One of the callers followed Reales Dominguez from Sycamore Park until police arrived and stopped Reales Dominguez about a block away from the park.

After the questioning on a residential street started to become what Pytel called a “neighborhood spectacle,” the person of interest went voluntarily with officers to Davis police headquarters for further questioning.

A witness at the scene, Michael Shearer, said police talked to the person near Pine Street for about five to 10 minutes before putting him in a police car and driving away.

May 4: Reales Dominguez arrested as suspect in all 3 stabbings

Pytel announced at a 2 p.m. news conference Thursday that the 21-year-old man detained Wednesday evening had been arrested in connection with all three stabbings, facing two charges of homicide and one of attempted homicide.

Reales Dominguez was booked at 2:20 a.m. into Woodland’s Monroe Detention Center, the Yolo County main jail, online booking records show.

The police chief during Thursday’s news conference said police are confident they have the correct suspect in custody, and that “based on the information that we have, the definition of a serial killer would apply.”

Pytel said Reales Dominguez during questioning was “reserved, he spoke for a long time,” but he would not divulge details of whether Reales Dominguez confessed or expressed remorse.

“What I can say is he was out wandering a neighborhood where the second homicide had occurred,” Pytel said. “He had a large knife and a backpack wearing the same clothes from the third stabbing.

“That’s highly unusual and unique. I think everybody will have to draw their own conclusions on that.”

Pytel described the weapon found in Reales Dominguez backpack as a “hunting”-style knife.

UC Davis confirmed the 21-year-old was a student until April 25, two days before the first stabbing, when he was “separated for academic reasons.” The university said Reales Dominguez was majoring in biological sciences and was in his third year at the school.

Pytel said detectives were still determining whether Reales Dominguez may have known Abou Najm from any potential interactions at the UCD campus.

“We have no information that he knew any of his victims,” Pytel said.

Reales Dominguez was living in a rented home on Hawthorn Lane with roommates, and police and FBI agents were searching the residence Thursday. The Hawthorn Lane home is about a half-mile from Sycamore Park, where Abou Najm was found dead; about a mile from Central Park, where Breaux’s body was found; and about 2 miles from the homeless camp at Second and L streets.

The chief said investigators had spoken with the roommates, but declined to address whether they realized that Reales Dominguez matched the description of the suspect they were seeking.

Davis police said they were hoping to use DNA evidence to pinpoint a suspect and were using the resources of the FBI, state Justice Department and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office crime lab to analyze evidence from the scenes.

May 5: Murder charges filed; not-guilty plea

Yolo County prosecutors on Friday morning filed a formal criminal complaint against Reales Dominguez, charging him with two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

District Attorney Jeff Reisig’s office also filed special circumstances of “for multiple murders, in that Carlos Reales Dominguez murdered more than one person,” according to court documents.

Those special circumstances and enhancements for premeditation in the alleged murders could lead to a death penalty prosecution.

“The defendant has engaged in violent conduct that indicates a serious danger to society,” the court filing says.

Reales Dominguez pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday afternoon in Yolo Superior Court.

He stood behind plexiglass in the Woodland courtroom, accompanied by his attorney, Yolo County public defender Dan Hutchinson.

Judge Daniel Wolk granted prosecutors’ request to have Reales Dominguez’s bail, previously set at $4 million, revoked. He is next due for a May 22 hearing in Woodland before Yolo Superior Court Judge Samuel T. McAdam.