Davis opens emergency shelter beds after stabbings at parks and a homeless encampment
The city of Davis on Tuesday evening opened about two dozen emergency shelter beds for unhoused people following a series of three stabbings in the past week at two parks and a homeless encampment, the most recent of which resulted in a woman being hospitalized after the assailant stabbed her multiple times through her tent.
Police, prosecutors and crime technicians continue to investigate the stabbings, which killed a 50-year-old man known to the community as the “Compassion Guy” last Thursday at Central Park, then a 20-year-old UC Davis senior Saturday at Sycamore Park, before Monday night’s attack at a downtown encampment near Second and L streets.
No suspect is in custody following an unsuccessful manhunt in downtown Davis early Tuesday morning.
“The city will be providing approximately two dozen emergency beds, as well as meals, for individuals willing to be sheltered indoors,” city officials wrote in a Facebook Tuesday evening.
The city said other local nonprofit organizations, including Davis Community Meals and Housing and HEART of Davis, are also assisting by adding staff and providing meals. City employees and nonprofit workers on Tuesday made outreach visits to encampments, encouraging people to take shelter indoors, according to the city post.
Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said in a Tuesday news conference that investigators have not definitively linked the three crimes, but criminal experts told The Sacramento Bee that they are likely the work of a serial killer.
Pytel said witnesses gave similar suspect descriptions in the Saturday and Monday stabbings, and that the attacks have been “particularly violent and brazen.”
The shelter beds are one of several measures imposed by city officials, law enforcement and the UC Davis community in response to the violence and fears of another attack.
Chancellor Gary S. May announced Tuesday afternoon that all UC Davis classes ending after 6 p.m. will transition to remote learning until further notice. Campus police also hired private security to join in campus patrols, and the university added personnel and vans for its Safe Rides program that drives students, faculty and staff to their homes off-campus.
Pytel said police are “stepping up patrols all over town” and have received help in their investigation from homicide detectives with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and Sacramento Police Department.
The police chief has not called for a citywide curfew, instead urging Davis residents to travel in groups, especially at night.
