CA deputy DA stabbed off-camera during judge candidate’s campaign shoot. What to know

A Fresno County senior deputy district attorney was stabbed in the back Thursday afternoon in downtown Fresno’s Courthouse Park while they were off-camera during the filming of a judicial campaign commercial.

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Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp says the attack was targeted, not random, and the suspect may have recognized the prosecutor from a case a decade earlier. Authorities would not reveal the name of the victim.

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Here are key takeaways

• The victim was participating in but off camera during a campaign commercial for Fresno County Superior Court judge candidate Ashley Paulson when he was stabbed, law officials said in a Friday news conference. Paulson, Fresno’s chief assistant city attorney, called the prosecutor a longtime colleague and friend in a social media post.
• Surveillance video from Courthouse Park shows the attacker walking straight up to the victim and stabbing him several times in the back, singling him out from several people standing nearby, Sheriff John Zanoni said. “This is not a random act of violence by a mentally ill man,” Smittcamp said. “This was targeted.”
• Dustin Crawford, 42, of Fresno, faces charges of attempted murder and attempted murder of a public official and remains in jail on a $1 million bond. Smittcamp said Crawford may have recognized the victim as the prosecutor who handled his 2016 case for knife assault, resisting arrest and battery on a police officer.
• Deputies responded to the courthouse at 1:16 p.m. Thursday and detained the suspect near Fresno Street and Van Ness Avenue after deploying a taser, sheriff’s spokesperson Tony Botti said. The victim was conscious, breathing and talking when taken to Community Regional Medical Center.
• The prosecutor was released from the hospital Friday and is expected to make a full recovery, Smittcamp and Zanoni said. His name has not been released, citing crime victims’ privacy rights under California law.
• To avoid a conflict of interest, the case will be prosecuted by the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office, Smittcamp said. Zanoni also said officials are working on a county ordinance that would permit district attorneys, public defenders, city attorneys and other employees to carry concealed weapons in county facilities.