PORTLAND, Oregon — A Portland DJ is recovering in the hospital after being stabbed multiple times while performing last week. Duncan Allen was playing music at Casa Diablo in Northwest Portland on Dec. 8, when he was attacked by a dancer that worked at the club.
According to a probable cause statement obtain by KGW, Allen initially thought he had been punched but realized he had been stabbed, when he felt his left lung failing to inflate.
“I was standing in the DJ booth, next thing I know I felt like a 500 pound man punched me in the back like four times,” explained Allen.
Allen staggered to the kitchen area of the club, where employees began applying pressure to the wound and called 911.
“Half the girls were obviously shook and started freaking out — but the other half of the girls were instrumental to my survival," said Allen. "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 said first responders arrived in roughly six minutes and were able to stabilize him. He was taken to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, officers observed two stab wounds on Allen’s back and one under his left armpit when they arrived to interview him.
The dancer, identified as 29-year-old Payton Lathan, was arrested and charged for stabbing Allen. Officers found her hiding in the bushes outside the club after the incident with two small knives on the ground nearby — one had blood on the tip. Lathan will be indicted Tuesday on multiple charges, including attempted first-degree assault.
Allen has had surgery to cauterize the wound to his lung. He continues to recover in the hospital but hopes to be out in a few days.
He wants to give special recognition to the dancers at Casa Diablo who assisted him after the incident.
“Sex workers are equal to every other person out there in this world," he gratefully stated. "And they have every right to be loved and be treated like human beings — if it wasn’t for them I would have died. So I want to say thank you to them.”
