Five employees were wounded — none of them critically, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office — in a stabbing inside the kitchen of the Dos Coyotes Border Cafe at Thunder Valley Casino, near Lincoln, Calif., on August 19, 2026. Joseph Naugle, 22, the restaurant worker accused of stabbing five of his co-workers there, has for years contended with serious physical and mental health conditions, his family told KCRA 3, adding that they grieve for those who were hurt.
In a statement provided on Sunday, August 23, to KCRA 3, the relatives said they were praying continuously for the recovery and peace of mind of the Thunder Valley employees and their loved ones, to whom they offered their sympathies.
“While we cannot speak on the details of the active legal case, we hope there will be an understanding of the complex medical realities involved,” the family said.
A motive has not been made public. Details of the lead-up to the attack were not immediately available, officials said, and the investigation is continuing, according to the sheriff’s office.
Violence in the Restaurant Kitchen
Announcing the incident in a Facebook post, the sheriff’s office said the stabbing was reported about 7 p.m. Every one of the five victims was stabbed in the kitchen area of the restaurant, a Thunder Valley Casino spokesperson said that night, and all of those caught up in the violence worked there. No casino guests were involved.
One wounded worker was driven to an area hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Thunder Valley emergency personnel and Cal Fire crews treated the other four, whose injuries were also not life-threatening. Paramedics were photographed tending to workers on the casino floor in images shared with KCRA 3, and the station’s LiveCopter 3 captured aerial footage of the investigation.
By then, the scene was already contained. A suspect was in custody within minutes of the deputies’ arrival at the casino, the sheriff’s office said. The same striking image was recorded by both a KCRA 3 news crew and a CBS News Sacramento camera: a man in a kitchen apron, his hands cuffed, being guided into the back of a patrol vehicle.
All Involved Worked at Dos Coyotes
That man was Naugle, the sheriff’s office said, adding that it appeared he knew every one of the people who were stabbed. The casino spokesperson had said on the night of the attack that all five victims, like Naugle, were Dos Coyotes employees. None of the five has been publicly identified.
No other suspects were being sought, officials said, and there was no active threat to the public or to anyone inside the casino. Thunder Valley was not evacuated. Only the restaurant closed. Everywhere else on the property stayed open through the evening, and that choice showed just how tightly the violence had been confined to one back-of-house workspace.
Thunder Valley Casino Resort sits in unincorporated Placer County about 30 miles northeast of Sacramento, owned and operated by the United Auburn Indian Community, and draws crowds nightly to its gaming floor and restaurants. Dos Coyotes Border Cafe is one of the dining options there.
Attempted Murder Charges and Court Dates
The sheriff’s office identified him as Joseph Benedict John Naugle. He made a first court appearance on Friday, August 21, but the arraignment was continued and no plea was entered that day.
At a hearing on Wednesday, August 26, in Placer County Superior Court, Naugle pleaded not guilty to felony attempted murder. He was booked on two counts of attempted murder, and ABC10 has reported five charges in all, covering attempted murder and assault; the sheriff’s office said when he was booked that it expected more charges to follow.
At that same hearing, according to the Placer County District Attorney’s Office, the defense asked the court to appoint a doctor. What the examination is meant to establish has not been spelled out in any account of the hearing. An advisory hearing is set for September 2.
Since the first patrol cars pulled up to the casino, one question has hung over the case: why it happened. It is still unanswered. No explanation for the attack has come from the sheriff’s office or prosecutors. The statement from the family cited Naugle’s medical history but did not directly take up the allegations.
By the narrowest of measures, the five wounded workers fared better than they might have. All five survived. Four were patched up on site, and none faced life-threatening injuries — an outcome that owed something to the speed of the response by casino medics, Cal Fire and the deputies who reached the kitchen within minutes.