Inset: Luis McLaughlin Jr. (Newark Police Department). Background: The site on Thornton Avenue in Newark, California, where McLaughlin is accused of stabbing a man (Google Maps).
An 18-year-old California man livestreamed the attempted murder of a stranger from his Discord account, according to authorities.
Officers in Newark, located about 35 miles from San Francisco, responded shortly after 11:30 p.m. on August 19 to a report of a stabbing in the 5600 block of Thornton Avenue. Upon arrival, they discovered a man who had been stabbed multiple times in the back. Emergency services rushed him to the hospital, where he was initially in a critical state but is now stable.
Police identified Luis McLaughlin Jr. as the suspect. On Sunday, the SWAT team arrested him at a residence in the 5000 block of Civic Terrace Avenue, as announced by police in a statement. He has been formally charged with one count of attempted murder by prosecutors on Monday.
The investigation pointed out that the attack was driven by a need for recognition, according to the police. McLaughlin and his victim were previously unknown to one another, authorities stated.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office informed the local CW station KRON that McLaughlin carried out the attack while the victim was busy cleaning kitchen items outside a dining venue.
“It appears there was no prior connection between the victim and Mr. McLaughlin. The attack was live-streamed on Mr. McLaughlin’s Discord account,” prosecutors noted, as reported by KRON.
Discord is a streaming app popular with video gamers.
Local Fox affiliate KTVU spoke to the restaurant CEO, who said the employee was stabbed in the lung — which was punctured during the attack — and shoulder.
After his arrest, the suspect wrote an apology letter, according to KTVU. Cops also recovered the alleged murder weapon, KTVU reported.
