1 dead, 4 injured in stabbing incident on Apple River in western Wisconsin

Pioneer Press
·3 min read

Authorities in western Wisconsin are investigating a Saturday afternoon stabbing involving inner-tubers on the popular Apple River that left a Minnesota teenager dead and four young adults seriously injured.

A 52-year-old Minnesota man was arrested following the apparent confrontation between two groups of tubers, according to St. Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson.

The sheriff said the victims were tubing on the Apple River when the incident occurred shortly before 4 p.m., about 100 to 200 yards upstream from the Highway 35-64 bridge in Somerset.

People began calling 911 at about 3:45 p.m., Knudson said during a news conference early Saturday evening.

“Deputies responded and as we were bringing resources to the area, reports were that a number of people had been stabbed,” Knudson said.

Due to it being an “inaccessible area,” the sheriff said, it took some time to get to the site.

“On arrival,” Knudson said, “they located five individuals that were suffering from stab wounds. The suspect of that stabbing had left the scene at that time.”

Deputies, tubers and others came together to assist the victims, the sheriff said, performing “lifesaving measures,” including evacuation.

A 17-year-old boy from Minnesota was taken to Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, where he was pronounced dead, the sheriff said.

The other victims — one woman and three men, all believed to be in their early 20s — were evacuated by air and ground ambulance to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Knudson said. Their injuries ranged from critical to serious, he said, citing a number of torso wounds. The sheriff said he did not yet know where the victims were from.

The suspect was reportedly with another tubing group at the time of the stabbings. Although he initially fled, the sheriff said he was located about a mile upstream some 90 minutes later after being spotted by witnesses. A cellphone photo taken around the time of the stabbings helped to identify the man.

“He was taken into custody without incident,” Knudson said, and jailed in Hudson. His hometown wasn’t disclosed.

The sheriff said the investigation, including a search of the river for the weapon, was continuing Saturday evening.

“I believe the gentleman that is our suspect was with another group of six to eight, and then we have the other individuals, so we’re probably talking about 15 to 20 people altogether that we’re trying to get good interviews on,” the sheriff said. “They all appeared to be tubing … at this time we’re not sure what started this incident.”

Saturday’s emergency response was assisted by agencies from western Wisconsin and the east metro area of the Twin Cities, including the Washington County sheriff’s office, Oak Park Heights police and Lakeview Hospital EMS.

Tubing on the Apple River, which flows through Polk and St. Croix counties in western Wisconsin before joining the St. Croix River on the Minnesota border, is a popular summertime pastime. However, officials have long struggled to limit some of the disruptive behavior on the river, including public intoxication and nudity.

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