Since his Thursday arrest, a few more details have surfaced about Carlos Reales Dominguez, the 21-year-old suspect in three stabbings in Davis — a bizarre spree that began on April 27.
Two days before Dominguez allegedly stabbed a 50-year-old possibly homeless man, David Breaux, on the park bench where he spent much of his time, Dominguez had been enrolled as a junior at UC Davis. Neither the school nor police have explained what transpired or what may have been happening in Dominguez’s life in recent months, but UC Davis put out a statement Thursday saying that Dominguez had been “separated for academic reasons” from the university on April 25.
Dominguez had been enrolled at UC Davis since 2020, according to his LinkedIn, and was scheduled to complete his undergraduate work next year. KRON4 reported that Dominguez had first attended Laney College in Oakland before transferring to Davis.
His arrest capped off a week of tense nights and general unease in the small town of Davis, where nearly two-thirds of residents are university students and many more work at the school in some capacity.
“A murderer is off the streets, and our families will sleep easier tonight,” said Davis Mayor Will Arnold during a Thursday press conference. “We must remain committed as a community to supporting them with love and compassion. I know we have it in us. Now, the work begins in earnest to heal as a community, to take back our shared spaces, and to move forward as one.”
Dominguez appears to have been ambitious student from his teen years, participating in an Oakland program in 2016 that mentors teens interested in going into medicine. While a student at Oakland’s Castlemont High School, Dominguez wrote a brief essay for Oakland Story Bank about how he decided to become a doctor.
“I got into health care to help my grandmother — she has type 2 diabetes. It makes me happy and it makes her happy, and I just love seeing her smile,” Dominguez wrote. “My grandmother used to take care of me when I was young, and now I take care of her. I’m the oldest in my family. My parents work, so I take care of my younger brother and sister, take them to school. I help with the cooking and cleaning.”
He said in becoming a doctor he wanted to give back to the community, perhaps by opening a sports medicine clinic and providing free physicals for those in need.
“Maybe people think it’s boring or it’s scary if you’re a surgeon and you see all that blood, but saving someone’s life makes you feel good about yourself,” Dominguez wrote.
His former high school football, coach, James Barnes, spoke to KCRA saying he was a “Great kid, 3.85 GPA. He was involved in all the school activities. He also ran track and participated in other athletics as well.”
Dominguez was detained Wednesday after being spotted sitting in a city park where one of two recent stabbing murders took place. Police said they received 15 separate tips about the sighting, and Dominguez fit a widely circulated description of a light-skinned male with shoulder-length dark hair, wearing Adidas track pants.
Police say that Davis cooperated with police and seemed to know that they were looking for him. He was allegedly carrying a backpack in which police found a long, fixed-blade knife.
After questioning him for hours overnight, Davis police declared him the prime suspect in the three recent stabbings. Breaux was killed April 27; a 20-year-old UC Davis student, Karim Abou Najm, was killed April 29 weeks before he was set to graduate; and a 64-year-old homeless woman, Kimberlee Guillory, was stabbed through her tent at an encampment late Monday night/early Tuesday. Guillory was able to call 911 and get quick medical attention, but she remained in critical condition as of Thursday.
Dominguez was scheduled to make his first court appearance in Yolo County Superior Court at 1:30 p.m. Friday.
Previously: Suspect Arrested In Davis Stabbings, Knife Found On Him
2023-05-05 18:13:30
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