Background: Security footage of the attack on DJ Duncan Allen by Peyton Lathan (KPTV). Inset: Duncan Allen in the hospital (KPTV).
An Oregon man working as a DJ for a local strip club was stabbed by one of the dancers who worked there in a sudden attack that was caught by security cameras.
Duncan Allen, a DJ at the Casa Diablo Vegan Strip Club in Portland, was caught off-guard on the night of Dec. 8 when one of the dancers employed there allegedly stabbed him from behind with a knife. The dancer, who was identified by police as Peyton Lathan, 29, ran out of the club after the attack and was found nearby hiding in the bushes with two knives, one of which had blood on the tip, officials said. She was arrested and charged with two felony counts of assault and one felony count of unlawful use of a weapon.
The shocking incident was caught on the club’s security cameras. Lathan can be seen standing near an unsuspecting Allen, who told Portland Fox affiliate KPTV that he was “on my computer getting some songs ready and next thing I know, it felt like a 500-pound man punched me in the back basically as hard as humanly possible. So, I turned around expecting there to be like a huge dude about to fight me and hit me, and it was her. And she was standing there holding the knife.”
The attack left Allen with a collapsed lung that nearly cost him his life. He reportedly said that paramedics told him he was just minutes from drowning in his own blood. After making his way into the club’s kitchen, several employees, including other dancers, came to Allen’s aid until first responders arrived. Allen told NBC affiliate KGW that the girls who helped him were “instrumental to my survival.”
“I was fading in and out of like consciousness because of my blood loss and oxygen loss. So, everything around me was getting blurry, everything was getting white,” Allen told the station.
Allen underwent several surgeries to repair the damage at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center and was expected to make a full recovery, according to a GoFundMe page started to cover his medical expenses.
According to an affidavit obtained by OregonLive.com, Lathan told police she was “pleading insanity” and after she was arrested she accused Allen of being a drug dealer, which he denied.
Not only did security cameras capture the alleged attack, but they also showed Lathan in her dressing room moments before. Johnny Diablo Zukle, the club’s owner, told KPTV, “She was always a little off, weird, but she never exhibited signs of violent tendencies. She definitely had a mental health crisis.”
But Zukle and friends of Allen suspect that Lathan’s attack was premeditated, noting that she allegedly had one knife up each of her sleeves before she struck Allen.
“I think she intended to kill someone, and it just happened to be Duncan, and when I think about it, when she was in the dressing room for about 10 minutes, she seemed like she was possessed by a demon,” Zukle said.
Lathan is being held at the Multnomah County Detention Center without bail.
