Chico State student attacked

This was a despicable act that occurred over the weekend. From the Chico Enterprise Record:

Joseph Igbineweka, 23, president of the Associated Students at Chico State University, was the victim of an apparent racially motivated attack early Sunday morning as he was returning home from a party on West Sacramento Avenue.
He is in stable condition and recovering at Enloe Medical Center.

Chico police said the suspects reportedly made racial comments before the attack. Igbineweka moved to the United States from Nigeria and is attending Chico State after attending high school in Richmond.*

At approximately 2:17 a.m., Igbineweka was walking home alone when two males approached and began to threaten him and make racial slurs, according to a press release from the Chico Police Department.

"I was just minding my own business," Igbineweka said from his hospital bed Sunday afternoon. He said the two men continued to follow him, even though he continued to walk away from the situation. "One of them said, 'Dude, you don't want to get shot.'"

Igbineweka said he turned around and saw something in the man's hand, but was able to confirm it wasn't a gun and kept walking. At that point, he said, the two men jumped him and he was able to knock down one of them before the other began to stab him.

"I didn't know what the object was, but I knew he had something in his hand," he said. "He was pretty much stabbing me wherever he could."

A friend of Igbineweka's, identified as "Mike," saw the incident and
attempted to help. Igbineweka said he realized he was "gushing blood," and stopped fighting while Mike tied the wounds with his shirt and called 9-1-1.
Igbineweka suffered injuries to the left side of his neck, the left of his chest, cuts on his abdomen and a particularly deep cut on his left arm, wrist and hand. He said the cut on his left hand is so deep that it has damaged the nerve endings and he cannot feel his left ring finger or pinkie finger.

Chico police were able to apprehend Barry Sayavong, 19, at the corner of West Sacramento and Citrus avenues minutes after the attack. Sayavong was arrested and booked into the Butte County Jail in Oroville on charges of attempted murder and a hate crime.

Chico police confirmed that Sayavong is a Chico resident and a Butte College student. However, police said there is also no evidence that Sayavong and his unknown accomplice knew who Igbineweka was at the time of the attack.

According to county jail officials, Sayavong's court date has been set for this Thursday. He is being held on $250,000 bail.

"I'm just happy they caught one of the guys," Igbineweka said. "It'd be much more painful if they hadn't caught him. I'm praying they give this guy maximum punishment."

Joe Wills, director of public affairs for Chico State, said the attack is "very distressing."

"We're obviously happy that Joe has survived this attack and is in the hospital and doing a little better. I know that our students and our entire campus hopes the best for him and our thoughts are with him today," he said.

Wills described the attack's classification as an attempted homicide and as a potential hate crime as "very, very disturbing."

The apparent hate crime against Igbineweka comes on the heels of another crime involving a Chico State student running for AS President, whose campus election posters were defaced with racial slurs just a week ago.

David Buckley, Associated Students executive director, visited Igbineweka in the hospital Sunday afternoon.

"We were shocked and concerned about Joseph when we heard this morning," Buckley said. "I think, for all of us, we're all really concerned for him."

Igbineweka said his experience shouldn't scare students, but they should walk in groups at night and not alone, as he was doing.

"It's as safe as much as you want it to be here in Chico," he said.

I've lived here for nearly eight years now, and I know for a fact that Chico is not a racist community. We embrace our diversity, and are proud of the diverse cultures and backgrounds of all of the students at Chico State. I know the community will rally around Mr. Igbineweka and will not condone this racially motivated violence.