‘We are shocked, horrified and in deep grief’: Nevada County teen dies in Yuba stabbing
An 18-year-old Nevada County man died from his injuries at a Sacramento-area hospital 10 days after he and a teenage boy were stabbed in a rural area of Yuba County and found along Highway 49.
Malachi Coleman of Grass Valley died Monday after he was listed in critical condition and transferred to the Sacramento-Area hospital, the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department announced Wednesday in a news release.
Sheriff’s officials said the other stabbing victim, a 15-year-old Grass Valley boy, was treated and later released from a hospital after suffering non-life-threatening injuries.
About 9 p.m. Jan. 28, the two injured stabbing victims were taken from Highway 49 in Nevada County to a hospital, according to the sheriff’s department. The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office contacted Yuba sheriff’s officials after investigators determined the stabbing occurred in the Camptonville area.
Yuba sheriff’s detectives are continuing their investigation of the stabbing and treating the incident as a homicide and assault with a knife. It’s unclear where exactly the stabbing occurred, where exactly the teens were found and what circumstances led to the stabbing. The sheriff’s department has not released any suspect information.
Coleman’s family has created a Gofundme online fundraiser to help his mother pay for expenses associated with his death, including funeral services and potential medical costs not covered by insurance.
Patrick Millar, Coleman’s uncle, said his nephew “was doing the best he ever has” after recently transferring to Bear River High School in Grass Valley, where he was a senior. He said his nephew was earning “straight A’s” in his classes and wanted to enroll in college next year to study neurobiology.
“I hope to have more updates on the incident to help us unravel exactly what happened,” Millar wrote about the stabbing on the Gofundme page. “We are shocked, horrified and in deep grief over his untimely passing.”
The uncle said Coleman arrived at the hospital with multiple stab wounds and the family was “still trying to put the pieces together,” adding that the last week and a half “has been our worst nightmare.”
Millar said the family this week was left with no other choice but to place the teen “on comfort care and let nature take its course,” because of the injuries that left his brain in an “unsurvivable state.”
“His mother (my sister Erin) is beyond devastated, as are we all,” Millar wrote on the Gofundme page. “Watching him fight for his life as hard as anyone possibly could has both broken us and given us such respect for the strength and love Malachi was all too ready to share with anyone he knew.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 1:07 PM.
