2 butcher knives used in attack.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A stabbing at a Cambodian monastery in East Oakland, California, left a 66-year-old monk in critical condition, while another monk is being sought in connection to the attack, according to multiple local news outlets.
The victim was stabbed numerous times in the head and body with kitchen knives and, Oakland police announced. They stated the assault happened at 6:19 p.m. Tuesday evening in the 600 block of Douglas Avenue in Oakland.
A monastery elder told KPIX 5 that the victim was a Buddhist monk from The Branch of International Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks Center, near the location of the assault.
“He was attacking him with two butcher knives, just chopping him up,” Monk Chundoeun Phin said.
Other witnesses told police that the victim’s face was “split open,” reported the SFGate.
When Phin heard the attack, he rushed downstairs to find one of his fellow monks on top of the 66-year-old leader of their community. He then shoved the attacker, who dropped both blades and fled while Phin called 911, according to his account of the altercation.
Phin claimed the attacker had only recently joined the monastery, and is still in disbelief that someone they welcomed into their home could commit such a brutal crime.
“I feel bad. I thought he would be a whole changed person. But something just snapped in his head,” Phin lamented.
Further details are unclear, as the names of the monks involved in the incident have not been released and the crime’s motive has yet to be determined.