A peaceful trip to the river was cut short this past Saturday in a tragic attack in which a man killed a teen and stabbed four others, as reported by local police.
The horrid attack took place as several groups of people started their day by Tubing down the Apple River. According to police reports, one 52-year-old man from Minnesota aggressively stabbed a 17-year-old-boy to death while also critically wounding another four.
“At this time we’re not sure what started this incident,” stated Scott Knudson, the sheriff for St. Croix County, as part of a press conference held later that day. “It’s all believed that everybody was tubing.”
The suspect in the stabbing ran from the scene but was later identified by witnesses and taken into custody by police forces roughly an hour and a half in the wake of the incident. Members of the group were able to give police investigators a picture of the suspect that had been taken at the scene, which aided in his capture. Officials did not immediately unveil the name of any of the victims or the suspect.
The victim who dies was also from Minnesota, and the surviving victims were stated to be one woman and three men, all of which were in their 20s. When he was officially taken into custody, the suspect did not still have the weapon on him, and police officials continued to scour the scene for the murder weapon.
Knudson stated that the victims and the suspect were tubing their way down the river in two distinct groups before the ordeal took place. He labeled the scene as “scary” and “chaotic.”
“I’m sure that anybody that witnessed this will never forget it,” he stated. “So it is a tragedy.”
It is still entirely unclear whether or not the two separate groups knew each other at all before the incident. The alleged killer belonged to another group that was about eight people strong, Knudson stated.
“He was taken into custody without incident,” explained Knudson. “We don’t know yet who was connected to who, who knew each other or what precipitated it.”
Knudson stated that investigators were still attempting to interview as many as 20 people and seemed to imply that formal charges could be filed as soon as Monday.
The suspect is being held in the St. Croix County Jail.
Originally, the area of the Apple River in which the attack took place is a well-known camping sight and tubing area in Somerset, Wisconsin, a town about 35 miles outside Minneapolis.