Eight people, five of whom were children, were hospitalized, and one additional child, 3, is dead after a brutal stabbing attack on Saturday that took place in Boise, Idaho, in an apartment complex that houses refugee families.
The suspect has been charged with murder following the death of the 3-year-old child.
The suspect, 30-year-old Timmy Kinner, was reportedly asked to leave the complex on Friday but went back Saturday and targeted a 3-year-old’s birthday party, stabbing six children. The suspect also stabbed three adults who tried to help the children.
Four of the nine total victims, who are members of the refugee community, were being treated for life-threatening injuries, National Public Radio reported.
“We haven’t had anything involving this amount of victims in a single attack in Boise in the history of the department,” Boise Police Chief William Bones said following the attack.
Nine people have been hospitalized after a stabbing attack at an apartment complex where refugee families live in Boise, Idaho, police say. https://t.co/RqUBBcxTeu
— NPR (@NPR) July 1, 2018
Reports came in Saturday around 8:46 p.m. to Boise police.
Police responded, and a 30-year-old man was taken into custody at gunpoint after he fled the scene.
The suspect was identified as Timmy Kinner of Los Angeles, California, and he is not a refugee. Kinner has been booked into jail on nine counts of aggravated battery and six counts of injury to a child.
“Preliminary evidence shows the suspect was a temporary resident at the apartment complex on Wylie [Lane] and State [Street] until he was asked to leave on Friday,” police said in a statement.
The motive is unclear.
This attack is “not a symbol or a representation of our community in Boise, but it’s a single evil individual who attacked people with no provocation that we are aware of,” Bones said.
“And it’s affected all aspects of the families within the apartment complex. At this point we haven’t lost anybody but as I said, the injuries are very, very serious,” Bones said.
The nine victims were found in the apartment complex parking lot and inside some apartments
Bones described the apartment complex as a “tight-knit community.”
“Wylie Street Station Apartments offers low-income family rentals under a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program that limits rent payments to 30 percent of a renter’s income,” the Idaho Statesman reported.
“Officers told some residents of the complex who were trying to go home that they should either find a motel or go to a nearby church for shelter, because the complex wouldn’t be opened to residents before daylight,” NPR reported.
