Five People Stabbed On Tubing Trip Down A River In Minnesota

Authorities said a Minnesota teen has died, and four others are critically injured after being stabbed while tubing on a Wisconsin river. St. Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson said the victims and the suspect, a 52-year-old from Prior Lake, Minn., were all tubing on the Apple River Saturday afternoon when the assault occurred.

Knudson said detectives are working to determine what led up to the stabbing and if the victims and suspect knew one another. They were floating in tubes with two separate groups, which included around 20 people. “We still do not know who was connected with whom, who knew one another, or what triggered this,” Knudson said.

The stabbing occurred in an obscure part of the river outside Somerset, Wis., about 35 miles east of Minneapolis. The suspect was arrested approximately one-and-a-half hours later as he was wading downriver. “Thank God that a witness took pictures of him, Knudson told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Another witness found him near the exit to the tubing zone, where the police located him.

A 17-year-old from Stillwater, Minn., died. Two of the other victims were flown to the hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, while the other two were taken there by ambulance. The sheriff’s office said Sunday the conditions for all four victims who survived – one female and three men in their late 20s – ranged from serious to critical.

They suffered stabbing injuries to the chests and torsos. The Sheriff’s Office did not identify the victims but provided some details about them, such as their ages and genders.

The suspect’s name was not immediately released, but records from St. Croix County Jail showed a 52-year-old man was being held without bond for alleged first-degree murder, four counts of aggravated battery, and four counts of malicious destruction.

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