A Scratch Kitchen employee was allegedly stabbed last Thursday night outside of the restaurant in downtown Norman, according to the Norman Police Department.
Around 9 p.m. on Nov. 9, NPD officers arrested Jaspen Terrell Evans, 28, for assault with a dangerous weapon after he allegedly stabbed a Scratch Kitchen server outside of the restaurant’s building.
That night, NPD responded to a call at Scratch Kitchen where a server reported that he was walking past Evans in the corner of the building when he felt something pressed into his back, according to the affidavit.
Witnesses said they observed the suspect with a white object, which was later identified as a sharpened toothbrush, in Evans’ hand when he allegedly stabbed the victim.
Officers located Evans attempting to escape by hiding behind a wall as they drove past him.
According to the affidavit, the victim told NPD he wanted to press charges against Evans as he didn’t know who he was or why he did it.
Evans didn’t state what happened or understood what was going on, according to the affidavit.
On Nov. 11, Evans was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after stabbing someone with a screwdriver outside of the Braum’s Ice Cream and Dairy shop on East Hayes Street in September, according to the affidavit from the arrest.
The following Friday after the incident on Nov. 9, Brady Sexton, the owner of Scratch Kitchen, wrote that Evans was a person experiencing homelessness and the incident was witnessed by a full dining room of people at his restaurant.
“Former guests have already told us they’re avoiding downtown due to the unhoused,” Sexton wrote. “This is becoming a downtown that too many do not want to live, work, dine, or shop in.”
During a Norman City Council meeting in August, Norman Police Chief Kevin Foster reported that overall offenses in Norman have slightly risen by 3% over the past three years.
As of July, there were 3,227 total number of arrests in Norman this year. At A Friend’s House, the city’s warming shelter at 109 W. Gray St., there were 20 arrests, meaning the shelter accounted for approximately 0.62% of total arrests in the city.
In his Facebook post, Sexton wrote incidents like the one at Scratch Kitchen involving people experiencing homelessness negatively affect Norman’s downtown. He added that Norman police don’t have the authority to keep “unsafe people” off Norman’s sidewalks.
“The idea that the rights of those people supersede the rights of my employees to be safe at work is unreasonable,” Sexton wrote. “The fact that the right to camp overshadows our rights to own and operate a business is outrageous.”
Sexton wrote in his Facebook post that he recognizes the efforts by organizations advocating for Norman’s homeless population, but that the burden shouldn’t fall entirely on them.
He wrote that city council is failing small businesses, and it’s time for the city manager and council to enact solutions that Norman’s small businesses demand.
The alleged stabbing and Sexton’s concerns coincide with a rise in anti-homeless rhetoric at Norman City Council meetings.
In a May meeting, Chelsea Gravel, who frequently speaks at the city council meetings about Norman’s homeless population, said she doesn’t feel safe in the city.
“I’ve given up running, I don’t want to walk alone and I don’t dare go to a park at all,” Gravel said during a council meeting on May 23. “I find myself wondering what does the future of my city, my safe Norman, look like? I don’t feel safe.”
Earlier this year, David McLeod, OU professor and former police detective, told OU Daily the rise of anti-homeless rhetoric is a scapegoat tactic and said fear of rising crime rates is a result of the consumption of inaccurate information.
“If we look at what's going on there in reality with a city the size of Norman, an increase in the population of people who are unhoused does not necessarily predict crime. It predicts that we have a housing problem. It predicts that we have problems in mental health services,” McLeod said.
This story was edited by Taylor Jones. Grace Rhodes copy edited this story.
