The man, Nicolae Miu, of Prior Lake, Minn., was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in Saturday’s killing of the teenager, identified by his family as 17-year-old Isaac Schuman of Stillwater, Minn. Mr. Miu also faces four counts of first-degree attempted murder, a felony, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in St. Louis County Circuit Court. Croix, Wis. The complaint described a bloody scene in which Mr. Miu “waved” a knife at a group of youths during an argument in the Apple River, a tributary of the St. Croix, frequented by tubers and campers visiting nearby St. Paul and Minneapolis. Mr. Miu — described in the complaint as “an older man” with gray hair, weighing about 250 pounds — was captured on video running toward a group shirtless and holding a respirator, according to the documents. In the video, the group can be heard telling him to “go away,” according to the documents. According to interviews with witnesses and victims, Mr. Miu was “harassing a group of minors on their tubes.” Members of that group were “calling for help from other people floating in the river nearby,” according to the documents. Witnesses said a group of people came and stood between Mr Miu and the minors and told him to leave. They also said he punched or slapped a woman in the second group who was confronting him. According to witnesses, Mr. Miu was then punched by a man and fell into the river, documents said. Mr. Miu then began “stabbing multiple individuals in his vicinity,” according to the complaint. They described the knife as having a three-inch silver blade. After the stabbing, “there was enough blood in the river that the water took on a red hue in places,” court documents state. Authorities have not released the names of the victims. The teenager was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital. The other four victims were in stable condition, authorities said. In an interview with the authorities, Mr Miu claimed he was acting in self-defence and had initially approached the group because he was looking for a lost phone and thought one of them might have found it. In a statement, the teenager’s family described him as an honor student who was looking forward to finishing his senior year at Stillwater High School. They said he hoped to pursue a degree in electrical engineering, and in the past year, had started an auto and boat detailing business. “Isaac walked into every room with a big smile, an infectiously positive aura and lifted everyone around him,” his family said in the statement. “He had an incredibly bright future ahead of him and we are all devastated and heartbroken.” The injured were described as two men, ages 20 and 22, from Luck, Washington. a woman, 24, of Burnsville, Minn.; and a 22-year-old man from Elk River, Minn., said Sheriff Scott Knudson of the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office. Croix in a statement on Sunday. On a GoFundMe page, Ryhley Mattison said she was among those injured in the attack. Nicolae Miu, 52, of Prior Lake, Minn., was charged with killing a 17-year-old boy and stabbing four others at a river tubing site in Somerset, Wis.Credit…St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office Deputies waded about 100 yards through waist-deep water to reach the victims, who were also assisted by others in the river and by emergency medical personnel, Sheriff Knudson said. Mr. Miu had left the scene and was taken into custody at a tuber exit point, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. Mr. Miu was with a group of friends, including his wife, Sondra Dee Miu, according to documents. She told authorities that she and her husband had reached the river around 10:45 a.m. and that at one point he had left their group to try to find “a missing member of their party phone.” Ms. Miu told authorities that while her husband was looking for the phone, a group of men got off their tubes and began beating Mr. Miu, and that two members of her party had run toward Mr. Miu and the men who was a fighter. Ms. Miu said that “all she heard was screaming” and that she did not see what happened, the documents say. He told the authorities that Mr. Miu had a knife in his pocket that was not very large. “These guys took it from him,” she said, adding that her husband had told her that a group of people “called him a pedophile and attacked him.” After the stabbing, he ran back to the river and into the woods, according to the complaint. Authorities arrested him after receiving reports at about 4:45 p.m. that he had been spotted by witnesses, documents state. Jeremiah Harrelson, a public defender who represented Mr. Miu at Monday’s hearing, said he could not comment further on the case as he was no longer representing him. In an interview with Brandie Hart, a lieutenant with the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office. Croix, Mr. Miu said he worked as a mechanical engineer, had a degree in engineering and mathematics, and had “never been in trouble with the law. before.” He said his actions were an act of “self-defence” and that he was searching for a lost mobile phone which he believed was inside a “floater” – one of the bags provided to tubers to prevent valuables from sinking. The group, he said, had insulted him for being in the water in his snorkel gear, calling him a “child player”. “I was attacked,” he told Lt. Hart, according to the complaint. “Everything happened so fast.” A preliminary hearing is set for August 12. Vimal Patel contributed reporting.
