How to attend ‘Day of Remembrance’ for Karim Abou Najm, UC Davis student killed in 2023 stabbing

Rosalio Ahumada
·1 min read
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As Davis continues to reflect and remember one year after a stabbing spree killed two men and injured a woman, the community is being invited to a public memorial for the youngest victim.

Karim Abou Najm was a 20-year-old UC Davis student just six weeks from his graduation when he was fatally attacked April 29, 2023, as he headed home through Sycamore Park.

The public is invited to a “Day of Remembrance” Monday at the park. Monday’s event will begin at 5:30 p.m. at nearby Willett Elementary School, 1207 Sycamore Lane, with keynote speakers including Abou Najm’s parents, who will share some of his writings and the initiatives to memorialize their son.

That will be followed at 7 p.m. at Sycamore Park by the unveiling of a memorial bench and naming of a bike path in honor of Abou Najm.

Fresh and wilted flowers adorned a memorial for Karim Abou Najm, at Sycamore Park on April 27, 2024. Najm was killed in April 2023 during a series of stabbings in Davis that rattled the city.
Fresh and wilted flowers adorned a memorial for Karim Abou Najm, at Sycamore Park on April 27, 2024. Najm was killed in April 2023 during a series of stabbings in Davis that rattled the city.

Over the weekend, family and friends of another victim, 50-year-old David Breaux, paid tribute to the man widely known as the “Compassion Guy” at his bench in Central Park.

Breaux had been a regular fixture downtown for the past decade. He had been sleeping at the park in the early hours of April 27, 2023, when he was killed.

A memorial set up at the compassion bench in Davis on Monday, May 1, 2023, remembers David Henry Breaux, 50, who was found stabbed to death Thursday in Central Park.
A memorial set up at the compassion bench in Davis on Monday, May 1, 2023, remembers David Henry Breaux, 50, who was found stabbed to death Thursday in Central Park.

The third victim, Kimberlee Guillory, 64, was stabbed two nights after Abou Najm and suffered serious injuries but survived.

Two days after Guillory was stabbed, suspect Carlos Reales Dominguez, a former UC Davis student, was spotted in Sycamore Park. He was subsequently arrested and has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder. His trial could begin in June.