Nine wounded by knife-wielding man at Idaho apartments housing refugees

[webfact]

Nine wounded by knife-wielding man at Idaho apartments housing refugees

By Laura Zuckerman

 

Timmy Kinner, 30, suspect in the stabbing in an apartment complex on Saturday night is seen in this Ada County Sheriff's Office booking photo in Boise, Idaho, U.S. on July 1, 2018. Courtesy Ada County Sheriff's Office/Handout via REUTERS

 

(Reuters) - A man went on a stabbing spree Saturday night at an apartment complex in Boise, Idaho that is home to refugee families, sending nine people including children to the hospital, four with life-threatening injuries, police said.

 

Timmy Kinner, a 30-year-old man from Los Angeles who was also staying at the apartment complex but had been asked to leave the day before the rampage, was arrested minutes after it occurred, Boise police said on Sunday.

 

The motive for the attacks was not known, police said.

 

Kinner was being held without bail at the Ada County jail on 15 charges, including six of injury to a child and nine of aggravated battery, jail records showed.

 

Some of the victims were found inside apartments at the complex, while others were found outside, police said. Officers responded to a call shortly before 9 p.m. local time, and were on the scene within five minutes, police said.

 

Boise Police Chief William Bones called the incident the act of "a single evil individual who attacked people without provocation that we are aware of at this time."

 

The police statement did not say from what countries the refugees had come. It noted that Kinner was not a refugee and that he had only been living temporarily at the apartment complex, which the Idaho Statesman newspaper said catered to low-income families and was run by a Boise nonprofit.

 

Jail records did not indicate whether Kinner had legal representation. He was due to appear in court on Monday.

 

Boise Mayor Dave Bieter said the "horrific attack" does not represent the state capital, which is the largest city in Idaho and has some 225,000 residents.

 

"Our city has long stood as a welcoming city -- a place of safety and kindness for those fleeing violence and oppression in their homelands. The senseless act of one disturbed person does not change that," Bieter said in a statement.

 

Idaho is deeply conservative, particularly outside of Ada County where Boise is located. The issue of whether to welcome refugees to the state has proved controversial in the past.

 

In 2015, opponents of a federally funded refugee welcoming center in Twin Falls, Idaho, campaigned unsuccessfully for the facility to be closed.

 

(Reporting by Laura Zuckerman in Pinedale, Wyoming; Additional reporting and writing by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-07-02

[Blue Muton]

Thank God the bastard didn't have a gun, or we would be reading a very different story. Let's hope for swift recovery for the victims.

[flyingtlger]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Officers responded to a call shortly before 9 p.m. local time, and were on the scene within five minutes, police said.

Thank  God the police arrive quickly....could have been a lot worse.