Brother Looking for Justice in Stabbing Death of Army Veteran

A veteran of the war in Afghanistan who had been living on the streets for more than a year was stabbed to death in Richmond on Friday, his brother said today. Quanah Brightman said his brother, Lakota Brightman, deserves justice and his killer needs to be found.

“I’m very concerned about finding this person and making sure he’s apprehended and brought to justice,” Quanah Brightman said. Lakota Brightman, 45, got into an argument with another man around 10 p.m. on Friday in the 1400 block of Carlson Boulevard, according to Richmond police Sgt. Nicole Abetkov.

The other man stabbed Lakota Brightman once in the upper left side of his chest, Abetkov said. Lakota Brightman walked into a nearby store seeking help and was transported to a hospital, where he died a short time later, Abetkov said. As of this morning, Abetkov said no suspects had been identified. For Quanah Brightman and his family, the news came as an unsettling surprise after another son in the family, Lehman Brightman III, died when a train in Richmond struck him on March 2.

“Now, I’m in the process of mourning two brothers,” Quanah Brightman said. Their father, Lehman Brightman II, was an activist with United Native Americans, Inc., an American Indians advocacy group that formed in San Francisco in 1968, according to the group’s website. Lehman Brightman II founded and coordinated the first Native Americans studies program at the University of California at Berkeley, and testified in Congress about the state of “off-reservation” boarding schools, according to the site.

Lakota Brightman, like his brothers, also participated in advocating for Native American rights, Quanah Brightman said. He served in the U.S. Army and did a tour in Afghanistan as a field medic, Quanah Brightman said.

“My brother, he wanted to help people and that’s why he went into the Army as a field medic,” Quanah Brightman said. “All of his friends who went over there and served with him, they had a lot of admiration and respect for him. They used to call him ‘Doc Brightman.’”

Quanah Brightman said he had a falling out with his brother after the two disagreed over how to handle their father’s care when he had a stroke in 2010 and had to live in a nursing home. Roughly a year and a half after he returned from Afghanistan, Lakota Brightman started living on the streets, Quanah Brightman said.

“He fought for this country and when he came home, our home had already been foreclosed and he was forced to live on the street,” Quanah Brightman said.

Despite their differences later in life, Quanah Brightman said he always looked up to Lakota Brightman and described him as a “gentle, kind-hearted and beautiful human being.”

“He was a hero to me growing up as a kid,” Quanah Brightman said. “He was always very sociable. He was just a smooth, cool person who a lot of people in our community looked up to.”

Lakota Brightman leaves behind two daughters, Phoebe and Star, aged 23 and 13, respectively, Quanah Brightman said.

“With Lakota being murdered, (Star) has lost that opportunity to have a real connection with her father,” Quanah Brightman said. “His daughters don’t deserve what just happened.”

By Bay City News