For Dylan Trembly, Monday's attack on a student at the University of Colorado was a grim and eerie rerun.

Trembly, 27, was stabbed six years ago. His knife-wielding attacker had an evil look in his eye and mouthed words about how everyone was "going to burn in hell."

The man was Kenton Astin, the same man held Monday in the stabbing of CU student Michael Knorps.

Astin was acquitted by reason of insanity in the 2001 attempted murder of Trembly.

"I couldn't believe it, you know," Trembly said after he learned of Monday's incident. "It blew me away. I haven't thought about it in a while."

Trembly still has scars on his left ankle and right hand from where Astin stabbed him without provocation inside a Salvation Army store in Longmont.

"He was just giving me the evil eye, and I was like, 'whoa,' " Trembly remembered as he juggled his 2-year- old son, Wyatt, on his knees. "Apparently, he was waiting for the perfect person."

Without saying a word, Astin charged Trembly, knocked him to the ground, stabbed him and tried to choke him. Trembly said he managed to wrestle the knife away from Astin, slash his assailant's cheek and gain the upper hand.

"He pulled out a Bible and started saying, 'We're all doomed . . . We're all going to burn in hell.' Apparently he thought I was the devil," Trembly said.

Astin was charged with attempted homicide and was sent to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. In October 2005, he was released to a halfway house at 748 19th St. in Boulder, on the edge of the University Hill neighborhood.

University of Colorado Chancellor Bud Peterson said Astin was employed at the university as a cashier at the Alferd Packer Grill from October 2006 through April. Chinook Clubhouse, a Boulder- based nonprofit that helps find employment for mentally ill men and women, had referred Astin to CU.

Peterson said Astin was not given a background check before starting work and that the school does use such checks, but at different degrees depending on employment. All Chinook-referred employees will be placed on seven-day suspension, pending review of their backgrounds, he said.

Astin had no criminal record while at the halfway house. A Boulder judge in April placed Astin on "conditional release," a status that requires less supervision and indicates that the court agreed he was doing well, said Liz McDonough, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Human Services. He had to continue to live at the halfway house and receive treatment at the Boulder Mental Health Center.

Trembly said he holds no animosity toward Astin, but saidthe second attack involving the same culprit is a wake-up call to the mental health profession.

"The poor man needs help," Trembly said.

morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303 954-5209