Teen dead, 4 injured after crazed knife attack on tubing trip

The suspect, a man from Minnesota, was taken into custody by police about an hour and a half after fleeing the scene. Witnesses identified the suspect at a point where tubers on the river exit, said Sheriff Scott Knudson of the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office. The suspect did not have a knife on him when he was taken into custody, and police are still looking for the weapon, according to the Daily Mail.

Authorities have not released the names of the victims or the suspect. One victim, a 17-year-old from Minnesota, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

According to Fox 9, the four injured victims are a 24-year-old female from Burnsville, Minnesota, a 22-year-old male from Elk River, Minnesota, and 22-year-old and 20-year-old males from Luck, Wisconsin. These victims range in condition from serious to critical, with injuries to their torsos and chest areas.

The Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin, a town about 35 miles outside of Minneapolis, is a popular recreation spot where people come to enjoy tubing and camping. A local resident, Kat Fenton, said she helped the father of one of the stabbing victims, and told Fox 9, she was shocked by the stabbing. "I've never seen anything like this," she said. "This is not OK. People just come here to have fun."

The attack took place around 3:45pm by a member of what Sheriff Knudson believes was another tubing group of about six to eight people. A motive for the stabbings is not clear at this time, and authorities say they did not know whether the suspect knew the victims. Police are trying to speak to the 15-20 people who were tubing on the river at the time to find out any more information.

Sheriff Knudson called the scene "chaotic" and "scary."

"I have not seen anything like this to this extent," he said of the stabbings.