DAVIS, Calif. — Majdi Abou Najm feels like time stopped a year ago when he learned his 20-year-old son, Karim Abou Najm, was brutally killed on his way home through a Davis park.

His son was a computer science major at UC Davis student just six weeks from his graduation. He was an aspiring software engineer with an impressive academic career and two jobs lined up after his graduation that June. But all that ended April 29, 2023, on a bike path at Sycamore Park.

“The world is trying to push me back to what they call ‘normal’,” the still grieving father said to over 100 people gathered Monday evening to remember and honor his son. “But what is normal? And how can anything be normal? Our society is not prepared to deal with grief, and the expectation is that we deal with it as quickly as possible and go back to normal.”

The UC Davis student was among three people stabbed, including David Henry Breaux and Kimberlee Guillory, in seemingly random attacks over several days before a suspect was arrested. Breaux was also killed; Guillory survived serious injuries.

The young man accused of committing the brutal stabbings, Carlos Reales Dominguez, once had a promising future as a UC Davis student but was apparently in a downward spiral of mental illness. Reales Dominguez faces charges of murder and attempted murder in the three stabbings.

Majdi Abou Najm, an associate professor of soil biophysics at UC Davis, wants people to speak more openly about mental health to destigmatize the subject, so more people can get the help they need.

“If you need help or if you know someone who does, open up. Feel no stigma, no shame or anxiety about opening up,” the father told the audience. “And if it helps, let me open up. I need help. I lost my son. I surely need help. And there’s no shame in that.”

Abou Najm’s family, Davis city officials and UC Davis students organized a “Day of Remembrance” Monday at Willett Elementary School for a discussion on mental health. Following the discussion, those who attended the event walked through the school parking lot to nearby Sycamore Park.

There, Abou Najm’s family unveiled a memorial bench and the naming of a bike path in honor of his son.

“May this bench forge new friendships, create happy and lasting memories, and be a refuge to reflect, to meditate or to remember,” the father said. “We hope it creates a safe and peaceful space to inspire curious discussions and illuminate new ideas.”

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