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Mary Amuzie
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ENLARGE
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J.C. Horn
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A man suspected of stabbing two men, and the two women suspected of helping him afterward, will be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. today in Nevada County Superior Court, Assistant District Attorney Ron Wolfson said.
J.C. Horn, 41, of Grass Valley, will be charged with assault with a deadly weapon; Mary Amuzie, 39, and Lashawnda Howse, 28, also of Grass Valley, will be charged with accessory after the fact, Wolfson said.
However, Grass Valley police are continuing to investigate whether one of Horn's two alleged victims may have assaulted the suspect before the stabbing occurred, Wolfson said. That assault is being investigated as a hate crime, police said.
The two stabbing victims, including one who is being investigated for a possible assault, are white. Horn and the two woman are black.
Jennifer Dunbar, 35, wife of the other stabbing victim, said her husband faces a long road to recovery after the stabbing sliced an artery and a nerve in one arm.
She also said Jason Dunbar, 32, of Grass Valley, was not involved in the racial name-calling that appears to have provoked the attack.
"Our brother-in-law is black. Our nephews are black. We are not racist," Jennifer Dunbar said.
The stabbing occurred at 8:15 p.m. Friday near Long Bottle Shop, a liquor store on Colfax Avenue in Grass Valley. Clerk Glenn Phillips, who witnessed some of the events, and Jennifer Dunbar, relating her husband's version of things, said they unfolded like this:
Jason Dunbar and a 27-year-old man, who has not been named by authorities, went to a store to buy charcoal to barbecue the family's dinner, then stopped at Long Bottle Shop, Jennifer Dunbar said.
As they got out of Dunbar's truck, the 27-year-old man saw a third man he knew and those two began to talk. Dunbar went into the store to buy things for both of them, Jennifer Dunbar said.
J.C. Horn, 41, of Grass Valley, will be charged with assault with a deadly weapon; Mary Amuzie, 39, and Lashawnda Howse, 28, also of Grass Valley, will be charged with accessory after the fact, Wolfson said.
However, Grass Valley police are continuing to investigate whether one of Horn's two alleged victims may have assaulted the suspect before the stabbing occurred, Wolfson said. That assault is being investigated as a hate crime, police said.
The two stabbing victims, including one who is being investigated for a possible assault, are white. Horn and the two woman are black.
Jennifer Dunbar, 35, wife of the other stabbing victim, said her husband faces a long road to recovery after the stabbing sliced an artery and a nerve in one arm.
She also said Jason Dunbar, 32, of Grass Valley, was not involved in the racial name-calling that appears to have provoked the attack.
"Our brother-in-law is black. Our nephews are black. We are not racist," Jennifer Dunbar said.
The stabbing occurred at 8:15 p.m. Friday near Long Bottle Shop, a liquor store on Colfax Avenue in Grass Valley. Clerk Glenn Phillips, who witnessed some of the events, and Jennifer Dunbar, relating her husband's version of things, said they unfolded like this:
Jason Dunbar and a 27-year-old man, who has not been named by authorities, went to a store to buy charcoal to barbecue the family's dinner, then stopped at Long Bottle Shop, Jennifer Dunbar said.
As they got out of Dunbar's truck, the 27-year-old man saw a third man he knew and those two began to talk. Dunbar went into the store to buy things for both of them, Jennifer Dunbar said.
While Dunbar was inside, Horn approached the store. Horn and the 27-year-old apparently know each other, and the 27-year-old began making provocative comments to Horn, Jennifer Dunbar said.
Horn entered the store just as Dunbar was leaving, and aggressively pushed his shoulder against Dunbar as they passed each other, Jennifer Dunbar said.
'Let's just go'
Meanwhile, Dunbar went to his truck to get in, and called to the 27-year-old to leave.
"The other guy was still standing there. Jason said, 'Leave him alone. Let's just go,'" Jennifer Dunbar said.
Horn walked out of the store and toward his apartment behind the Old World Deli next door, while the 27-year-old continued to shout provocative comments. The 27-year-old followed Horn, who then came back outside.
The 27-year-old man took a swing at Horn, Jennifer Dunbar said.
"Then he shouted, 'Run, Jason, he's got knives,' and ran out of there," Jennifer Dunbar said. "Jason jumped back and put both hands in the air, like, 'Whoa!,' and Horn turned to Jason.
"My husband said, 'It happened so fast, I didn't even know I was cut,'" Jennifer Dunbar said.
Horn entered the store just as Dunbar was leaving, and aggressively pushed his shoulder against Dunbar as they passed each other, Jennifer Dunbar said.
'Let's just go'
Meanwhile, Dunbar went to his truck to get in, and called to the 27-year-old to leave.
"The other guy was still standing there. Jason said, 'Leave him alone. Let's just go,'" Jennifer Dunbar said.
Horn walked out of the store and toward his apartment behind the Old World Deli next door, while the 27-year-old continued to shout provocative comments. The 27-year-old followed Horn, who then came back outside.
The 27-year-old man took a swing at Horn, Jennifer Dunbar said.
"Then he shouted, 'Run, Jason, he's got knives,' and ran out of there," Jennifer Dunbar said. "Jason jumped back and put both hands in the air, like, 'Whoa!,' and Horn turned to Jason.
"My husband said, 'It happened so fast, I didn't even know I was cut,'" Jennifer Dunbar said.
According to the Grass Valley police report, the 27-year-old man suffered a puncture wound to the back and a cut to the wrist. He was treated at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital and released.
Dunbar made it back to the door of the liquor store, dripping a trail of blood.
Clerk saved arm
Phillips, a 44-year-old clerk at the store, said he walked out of the shop's double doors to find Dunbar, a regular customer, leaning up against the glass and bleeding.
"He was cut right on the bend of his arm, all the way through," Phillips said.
He said he didn't see the attack, but bystanders were saying Dunbar had been cut with a "very large" kitchen knife.
Phillips ran inside and grabbed a roll of paper towels to soak up the blood.
"It was obvious that wasn't going to be enough," Phillips said.
He tried to use a T-shirt to stop the bleeding, which soon was soaked through.
As another clerk ordered the customers out and closed down the store, Phillips asked a customer for his belt and strapped it around Dunbar's upper arm.
Dunbar made it back to the door of the liquor store, dripping a trail of blood.
Clerk saved arm
Phillips, a 44-year-old clerk at the store, said he walked out of the shop's double doors to find Dunbar, a regular customer, leaning up against the glass and bleeding.
"He was cut right on the bend of his arm, all the way through," Phillips said.
He said he didn't see the attack, but bystanders were saying Dunbar had been cut with a "very large" kitchen knife.
Phillips ran inside and grabbed a roll of paper towels to soak up the blood.
"It was obvious that wasn't going to be enough," Phillips said.
He tried to use a T-shirt to stop the bleeding, which soon was soaked through.
As another clerk ordered the customers out and closed down the store, Phillips asked a customer for his belt and strapped it around Dunbar's upper arm.
A former search and rescue volunteer for a fire department in Southern California, Phillips had learned in his training that using a tourniquet almost always ends up saving a person, but losing the person's arm.
He worried that would be Dunbar's fate.
But Dunbar's wife called Phillips the next day to let him know her husband's arm was intact.
"It was like a load of bricks off me," Phillips said.
"He saved my husband's life," Jennifer Dunbar said.
Fund set up
But it wasn't clear at the time that Dunbar would make it through. A surgeon at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital put a shunt into the severed artery so Dunbar would not bleed to death while being transported to Sutter Roseville Memorial Hospital.
"He said, 'I need to tell you, your husband might not make it tonight, and there's a five-percent chance of saving the arm,'" Jennifer Dunbar recalled. "They put eight pints of blood in him."
At Sutter Roseville, another surgical team spent six hours taking 10 inches of artery from inside a thigh and putting it into the cut arm, and repairing the damaged nerve.
He worried that would be Dunbar's fate.
But Dunbar's wife called Phillips the next day to let him know her husband's arm was intact.
"It was like a load of bricks off me," Phillips said.
"He saved my husband's life," Jennifer Dunbar said.
Fund set up
But it wasn't clear at the time that Dunbar would make it through. A surgeon at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital put a shunt into the severed artery so Dunbar would not bleed to death while being transported to Sutter Roseville Memorial Hospital.
"He said, 'I need to tell you, your husband might not make it tonight, and there's a five-percent chance of saving the arm,'" Jennifer Dunbar recalled. "They put eight pints of blood in him."
At Sutter Roseville, another surgical team spent six hours taking 10 inches of artery from inside a thigh and putting it into the cut arm, and repairing the damaged nerve.
Dunbar, a contractor, supports his wife and four children ages 4 to 13 years old. Their youngest, Logan, was declared clear of adult leukemia just three weeks ago, after two years of battle. Still, the boy faces three more years of bone marrow biopsies to keep watch.
"We don't know how much use (Dunbar) will have with his arm. He can move his fingers, but he can't feel anything in his arm," Jennifer Dunbar said.
"Without his hands and arms, he can't work."
A friend has set up a fund to accept donations to help the family with expenses, Jennifer Dunbar said. Contributions can be made to Washington Mutual Account No. 3120839169, in the name of the Jason Dunbar Family.
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To contact Staff Writer Trina Kleist, e-mail trinak@theunion.com or call 477-4231. To contact Staff Writer Robyn Moormeister, e-mail robynm@theunion.com or all 477-4236.
Donations to Dunbar family
An account has been opened to accept donations to help the family of stabbing victim Jason Dunbar, 32, of Grass Valley. Dunbar left the intensive care unit of Sutter Roseville Memorial Hospital on Sunday after being stabbed in the arm Friday. He is in fair condition, a nursing supervisor said.
The account is at Washington Mutual, No. 3120839169. Please note "Jason Dunbar Family" in the memo line.
- Trina Kleist
"We don't know how much use (Dunbar) will have with his arm. He can move his fingers, but he can't feel anything in his arm," Jennifer Dunbar said.
"Without his hands and arms, he can't work."
A friend has set up a fund to accept donations to help the family with expenses, Jennifer Dunbar said. Contributions can be made to Washington Mutual Account No. 3120839169, in the name of the Jason Dunbar Family.
ooo
To contact Staff Writer Trina Kleist, e-mail trinak@theunion.com or call 477-4231. To contact Staff Writer Robyn Moormeister, e-mail robynm@theunion.com or all 477-4236.
Donations to Dunbar family
An account has been opened to accept donations to help the family of stabbing victim Jason Dunbar, 32, of Grass Valley. Dunbar left the intensive care unit of Sutter Roseville Memorial Hospital on Sunday after being stabbed in the arm Friday. He is in fair condition, a nursing supervisor said.
The account is at Washington Mutual, No. 3120839169. Please note "Jason Dunbar Family" in the memo line.
- Trina Kleist
