Man Says White Supremacist Stabbed Friend on State Street
Suspect Reportedly Attacked Black Victim with Scissors
A Santa Barbara man was stabbed on the 1100 block of State Street at around 11 a.m. this morning. He suffered multiple wounds to his face and head, and was rushed to Cottage Hospital after responding medics bandaged the lacerations with gauze.
The suspect is still on the loose. He’s been described as a white male in his twenties or thirties, six feet tall, around 175 pounds, carrying a backpack and wearing jeans, a green T-shirt, and hat. Scanner chatter last indicated he was running northbound on State Street.
Indy interns Nuria Reed and Kamilla Plambeck, who arrived at the scene of the stabbing right after it happened, spoke with witnesses, including the victim’s friend. Police on-site referred questions to SBPD spokespeople, who have so far been unavailable for comment.
According to the friend, Phil Dybedal, he and the victim were walking from their workplace on Canon Perdido Street to McDonald’s for lunch. They were discussing rap group Bone Thugs N Harmony when they crossed paths with the suspect who starting giving them grief. The suspect said to the victim, who’s black, “You should tell your friend to start acting like a white guy,” in reference to Dybedal, who’s white.
Dybedal noted that the suspect had a tattoo on his neck of a cross encircled by a halo and the initials “WS” written across. Dybedal theorized that the WS stands for “White Supremacy,” remembering information his dad, a police officer, had relayed to him.
After a few heated words were exchanged — the confrontation almost escalated to a fight then and there, but the suspect reportedly said, “We’re not going to do this on State Street” — Dybedal and the victim continued to McDonald’s. After eating and heading back to work, the two saw the suspect approaching them.
The suspect said something intelligible, remembered Dybedal, and pulled out a large pair of scissors from his backpack. Dybedal estimated they were about eight inches long. He proceeded to attack the victim who fought back, eventually breaking free. As the suspect sprinted away, the victim staggered down State Street for a few hundred feet, leaving a trail of blood on the sidewalk and bushes. Dybedal called 911 when they stopped in front of Business First Bank.
It’s unclear at this point how serious the victim’s injuries are. More information will be reported once it becomes available.
