DJ hospitalized after being stabbed by a stripper

PORTLAND Hours. (KPTV/Gray News ) – A Portland man is recovering after he was stabbed four times in the back by a stripper last weekend.

Duncan Allen has been DJing at Casa Diablo Vegan Strip Club for over a decade, and he says he’s seen a thing or two in that time. However, he never thought he would be leaving work in an ambulance with stab wounds.

“I was on my computer preparing some songs and the next thing I knew it felt like a 500-pound man punched me in the back as hard as possible,” Allen said. “So I turned around expecting there to be a huge guy about to fight me and there she was (a dancer) standing there holding a knife.”

As shocked as he was, Allen knew he had to stay calm.

“I still didn’t know I had been stabbed at the time. Then I breathed in and realized my left lung had collapsed,” he said.

When first responders were called to the scene, Allen said paramedics told him he was just minutes away from drowning in his own blood filling his lung.

Allen said he still wonders why the dancer attacked him, completely unprovoked.

Club owner Johnny Diablo Žūklė said he was equally shocked because the dancer, now identified by authorities as Peyton Lathan, had worked for him for 10 years.

“She was always a little bit lost, but she never showed signs of violent tendencies,” Žūklė said. “He definitely had a mental health crisis. I think she had intended to kill someone and it happened to be Duncan, and when I think about it, when she was in the dressing room for about 10 minutes, it looked like she was possessed by a demon.

After leaving the club, authorities said Lathan was found hiding in bushes along the road as police escorted Allen’s ambulance to the hospital.

The police stopped and arrested the 29-year-old. She faces two counts of assault as well as one count of unlawful possession of a weapon.

According to court documents, Lathan repeatedly told police during her arrest that she was “pleading insanity” and said, “That man is a drug dealer.”

Allen, who denies the claims, said he would like to see the behaviors in question taken more seriously. He believes that if someone had talked about Lathan’s behavior beforehand, she would never have had the chance to attack him.

“It would have broken my ribs. He could have stabbed me in the kidney. He could have stabbed me in the throat. He could have stabbed me in the spine,” he said. “To be honest with you, I think she should be charged the most because the truth is it was premeditated.”

Lathan is expected to be arraigned Tuesday morning.

Allen’s friends have since started o GoFundMe to help him with medical expenses.