Authorities say that a Minnesota teenager has passed away, and four other people were highly injured after being stabbed while rafting down the Wisconsin River.
Sheriff of St. Croix Scott Knudson, the targets and the suspect, a 52-year-old man from Prior Lake, Minnesota, were all on the Apple River when the attack occurred on Saturday afternoon.
Knudson said detectives are working on specifying what led up to the stabbing and whether the victims and suspects knew each other. There were tubes with two different groups that included about 20 people.
“We don’t know yet who was associated with whom, who knew each other or what poured it,” Knudson said.
The knife attack took place on a hard-to-reach river near the town of Somerset, Wisconsin, about 56 kilometres east of Minneapolis. The suspect was charged about an hour later while climbing downstream from the river.
“Thank god a witness took a picture of him,” Knudson told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Another witness found him near the exit of the hose area where he was brought into custody.
A 17-year-old boy from Stillwater, Minnesota, has died. Two of the other victims were airlifted to a hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, and two others were taken there by ambulance.
The sheriff’s office said Sunday that the state of all four surviving victims — a woman and three men in their 20s — varied from severe to critical. They suffered stab injuries to the chest and torso.
The sheriff’s headquarters did not say the victims’ identities but provided a few facts about them. The victims had a 20-year-old man and a 22-year-old man from Wisconsin; A 22-year-old man from Elk River, Minn.; and a 24-year-old woman from Burnsville.
The suspect’s name was not directly released, but records from the St. Croix show the 52-year-old man was being kept without bond on suspicion of first-degree murder, four counts of aggravated attack and four counts of maiming.
Sheriff Scott Knudson said that several witnesses called police when the stabbing happened on the Apple River near Somerset, Wisconsin, with the victims and suspect believed to be tubing. The attack occurred on Saturday afternoon.
“It was a tragic, stunning sight for families sailing down the river,” he said.
The victims were tubes with two different groups, about 20 people in total. According to the TV station, detectives are still working to define if the suspect knew the victims and what led to the stabbing.
The sheriff’s office said Sunday that the state of all four surviving victims — a woman and three men in their 20s — varied from severe to critical. They suffered stab injuries to the chest and torso.
The sheriff’s headquarters did not say the victims’ identities but provided a few facts about them. The victims had a 20-year-old man and a 22-year-old man from Wisconsin; A 22-year-old man from Elk River, Minn.; and a 24-year-old woman from Burnsville.
