SOMERSET, Wis. (AP) — A Minnesota teenager has died and four others were seriously injured after they were stabbed while tubing down the Wisconsin River, authorities said.
St. Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson, the victims and the suspect, a 52-year-old man from Prior Lake, Minnesota, were on the Apple River when the attack happened Saturday afternoon. Knudson said investigators are working to determine what led up to the stabbings and whether the victims and the suspect knew each other. They traveled by tube with two different groups comprising about 20 people.
“We still don’t know who was involved with who, who knew each other or what caused this,” Knudson said.
The stabbing took place in a remote stretch of the river near the town of Somerset, Wisconsin, which is about 56 kilometers east of Minneapolis. The suspect was apprehended about an hour and a half later as he waded down the river.
“Thank goodness a witness took a picture of it,” Knudson told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Another witness found him at the exit of the tube area where he was being held.”
A 17-year-old boy from Stillwater, Minnesota, has died. Two of the other victims were flown to a hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, and two others were taken there by ambulance. The sheriff’s office said Sunday that the condition of all four surviving victims — a woman and three men in their 20s — ranged from serious to critical. They received stab wounds in the chest and torso area.
The sheriff did not name the victims, but provided some details about them. The victims include a 20-year-old man and a 22-year-old man from Luck, Wisconsin; A 22-year-old man from Elk River, Minnesota; and a 24-year-old woman from Burnsville, Minnesota;
The suspect’s name was not immediately released, but St. Croix County Jail records show a 52-year-old man is being held without bond on suspicion of first-degree murder, four counts of aggravated battery and four counts of disorderly conduct.
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