Nicolae Miu, Prior Lake, Minnesota man identified as Wisconsin river stabbing that led to him fatally stabbing, Isaac Schuman of Stillwater and injuring three others while tubing.
A 52 year old man is expected to appear in court today where he will be formally arraigned after being accused of fatally stabbing a 17 year old boy along with stabbing four others while tubing along a Wisconsin river over the weekend.
Nicolae Miu, a 52 year old engineer and self confessed ‘gun lover’ hailing from Prior Lake, Minnesota was identified as the suspect who allegedly went on a stabbing rampage along Wisconsin’s Apple River, in St Croix County, mid Saturday afternoon.
Isaac Schuman a 17 year old incoming honor roll senior at Minnesota‘s Stillwater High School was identified as the fatal victim stabbed to death, with three other young men, ranging from age, 20, 22, and 22, and a female, 24 year old woman, Rhyley Mattison, also being stabbed, with their conditions ranging from serious to critical.
Deputies responded to a 911 call about several people having been stabbed while tubing and a suspect from another tube, believed to have been armed with knife, having perpetrated the crime, before fleeing the scene.
The incident is believed to have been ignited after Mattison’s group approached the 52 year old man after spotting him chatting to a group of teenagers who looked ‘uncomfortable’, as Miu reportedly asked them for ‘young girls’ numbers.
‘He was just walking around like a weirdo’
Miu after having been approached by Mattison’s group, retaliated by stabbing the inquiring party.
Told Rhyley via the dailymail: ‘I think he had the knife between his fingers, I just saw that I was bleeding and I screamed call 911.
‘It didn’t look like he was tubing, he was on his own. He was just walking around like a weirdo.
After stabbing his victims, Miu managed to flee the scene.
A witness was able to snap a photo of the accused attacker, and other witnesses spotted him about an hour and half later near the river’s exit point for tubers. The suspect, identified so far as a 52-year-old man from Prior Lake, Minnesota, was arrested and had remained held at St. Croix County Jail since Saturday according to St. Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson.
On Facebook, Miu, who went by the name Nick Miu, wrote posts opposing gun control and pro firearms, sharing one that read, ‘guns don’t kill people, people kill people.’ His profile picture is the American flag.
While another post read with the picture of what appears to be a young family shooting, ‘This is quality time and gun control in one.’
‘He had a bright future ahead of him,’ fatal victim’s family say
To date, authorities did not know whether and if or how the parties of tubers knew each other and what prompted the man’s violent outburst which occurred upstream from the STH 35/64 bridge, near Mile Post #9.
‘We don’t know yet who was connected to who, who knew each other or what precipitated it,’ Knudson said at a press conference. ‘It’s a tragic day.’
Authorities said that two different groups were tubing with a total of up to 20 people when the deadly assault took place.
An update provided Sunday by the sheriff’s department said the four surviving victims were all in stable condition and their injuries ranged from serious to critical wounds to their torso and chest areas. So far, they have been identified as a 20-year-old male from Luck, Wisconsin, a 22-year-old male from Luck, Wisconsin, a 24-year-old female from Burnsville, Minnesota, and a 22-year-old male from Elk River, Minnesota.
Two of the victims were flown to Regions Hospital in St. Paul following the incident, while another two were taken by ambulance to the same hospital. Schuman was transported by ambulance to Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, Minnesota, where he was pronounced dead.
The family of Isaac Schuman, who was killed in the stabbings, released a statement Sunday, said the 17-year-old soon-to-be high school senior was preparing to apply to several universities to pursue a degree in electrical engineering. Schuman had started a car and boat detailing business in the past year, and his family called him ‘mature for his age and had a forward-looking mentality that was uncommon for a high school junior.’ Family members said he ‘entered every room with a big smile, infectiously positive aura and lifted everyone around him up,’ and that he had a bright future ahead of him.
