California college town rattled after ‘brutal and violent’ stabbings

Residents of Davis, Calif., are on edge after three people were stabbed, two of them fatally, in the city in a matter of days, sparking a manhunt involving local police and federal investigators.

Davis police scoured the city’s downtown with drones and search dogs Monday night but could not find a suspect after a woman was stabbed and critically injured in a homeless encampment. The city was already on high alert after a man was found dead with stab wounds Thursday in a park in central Davis and another man was killed in a stabbing Saturday in a different park nearby.

Police say they do not yet know whether the incidents are connected, but they share similarities. Witnesses provided a “substantially similar” description of the attacker in the second and third stabbings, Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said in a news conference.