A Vancouver man who is accused of repeatedly stabbing a stranger in the face with a box cutter told police “he had been looking for someone to kill,” court records show.
Nathan A. Karch, 33, said “he had been seeing ‘signs from God’ and that God ‘told him to do it,'” according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Karch appeared Monday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder. His bail was set at $2 million; he is scheduled to be arraigned May 8.
The victim in Friday’s attack was identified as 55-year-old Michael Braun. His medical condition was unavailable Monday. Court records state that Braun suffered life-threatening lacerations to his face, torso, arms and hands, including damage to arteries and tendons that required surgery.
Vancouver police officers and medics were called at 1:13 p.m. to the parking lot of a shopping center at 1901 N.E. 162nd Ave.
Braun told responding officers that he was sitting in the rear cargo area of his vehicle with his dog when a stranger approached him and “made numerous incoherent statements accusing (Braun) of doing something to his mother,” the affidavit says.
Braun did not engage with the man, he said, but the man became increasingly aggressive, then struck him several times in the face and body. Braun said he thought Karch was punching him, until he noticed he was bleeding significantly from his face. That’s when he realized he had been assaulted with a box cutter, according to court documents.
He fought back and the assailant dropped the box cutter. Braun said he got on top of the man and held him down with the assistance of citizens, court records state.
“The quick intervention of the citizens who witnessed the assault clearly saved the victim’s life,” the Vancouver Police Department said in a news release Friday.
Braun was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Braun and Karch told police they had never met.
After being placed under arrest, Karch allegedly told police he had been walking around with a box cutter in his pocket with the intention of finding a person to kill who “met his criteria,” according to the affidavit.
“He indicated that ‘the world’ treated him and his mother like ‘dogs.’ He indicated that he did not want to kill a vulnerable person, such as a ‘woman, a child or an elderly person,’ but wanted to kill an adult, physically capable male,” the affidavit reads.
Karch said he went to the Wilco Farm Store in the shopping center to use the restroom, and when he exited, he saw Braun with his dog and “took it as a sign that ‘it was time,'” according to court documents.
He chose to use a box cutter, he said, because he is familiar with it and used one regularly at work, court records say.
