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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A Minnesota man has been charged by authorities in relation to his role in the deadly knife attack of five persons in a Wisconsin River.
Nicolae Miu,
of Prior Lake Minnesota fatally stabbed a teenager to death and brutally
stabbed four other people most of who were in critical condition in the hospital.
The 52-year-old suspect had allegedly had a spat over a lost cellphone during the weekend tubing excursion in the Apple River before the stabbing incident.
Why did the Minnesota man stab multiple persons?
Court
documents reveal that Miu attacked the group after people accused him of
approaching children in the water, The Associated Press reports. But Miu told
investigators he was acting in self-defense.
The Associated
Press reported that the suspect faces one count of first-degree intentional
homicide and four counts of attempted first=degree intentional homicide in St.
Croix County along the Wisconsin border with Minnesota. A $1 million cash bond
was set for Miu, who reportedly appeared by video.
The dead teen
was 17-year-old Isaac Schuman, of Stillwater, Minnesota and had been a senior at
Stillwater High School this fall, according to The Associated Press.
How did the stabbings at Apple River take place?
A criminal complaint
against Miu obtained by Minnesota Public Radio indicated that Miu was tubing
down the river with his wife and several other people as well as another group
of people who were also tubing in the same river, according to The Associated
Press.
Miu
reportedly told investigators that he was using snorkel and goggles to look for
a lost cellphone but video and witness accounts indicate bystanders accused him
of approaching children in the water.
Miu was
allegedly bothering a group of juveniles and others told him to leave, according
to the complaint which cited witness testimony.
Instead of leaving, Miu punched a woman and a fight ensued, The Associated Press cited the complaint. The man fell into the river and emerged with a knife and then stabbed a person, according to video evidence.
Enough blood Apple River after stabbings
“There was
enough blood in the river that the water turned a red tint in places,” the
complaint states.
Miu told
investigators that he was provoked, according to the complaint, adding that at
least two others in the crowd had knives and he took one of the knives away
from one of the males in the crowd but didn’t know what happened to it, The Associated
Press reported.
“They
attacked me,” he said. “I was in self-defense mode.”
According to
The Associated Press, the Burnsville victim, Ryhley Mattison, wrote in a
GoFundMe post that she was tubing with her friends when they came across a
group asking for help. She said there was an older man who was “being inappropriate
and was asked to leave, but wouldn’t,” and that he stabbed her and several
other people.
The victims
along with the suspect were tubing with two different groups that included
about 20 people when the fatal stabbings took place Saturday afternoon.
Suspect arrested after he fled the Wisconsin River stabbing scene
The suspect who
fled the scene was later arrested after a witness identified him at a spot
where the tubers exit the river, Newsweek quoted a report by The New York
Times.
The knife
attack happened near the town of Somerset, Wisconsin, which is about 35 miles
(56 kilometers) east of Minneapolis, The Associated Press reported.
The teenager
who died at the spot was from Stillwater, Minnesota but two of the other
victims were flown to a hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, and two others were
taken there by ambulance. According to the Sheriff, the condition of the four
surviving victims – a woman and three men in their 20s – ranged from serious to
critical, The Associated Press reported.