RAMPAGE IN ROCKFORD
4 dead in stabbings, including 15-year-old girl and 63-year-old woman
Four people were killed and seven were hurt in stabbing attacks in Rockford on Wednesday, authorities said.
A man was in police custody and was being questioned Wednesday afternoon, according to Rockford Police Chief Carla Redd. She said one of the people who was wounded remained in critical condition.
Rockford police received a medical call about 1:15 p.m. to a residential area near Cleveland Avenue, Holmes Street and Eggleston Road, followed by additional calls for police and paramedics, authorities said.
Redd said that not all of the victims had stab wounds. None was shot. “Right now, we don’t have a clear motive as to what caused this individual to commit such a heinous crime,” Redd said.
Rockford police initially said five people had been injured. Cori Hilliard, a public information officer with the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, told The Associated Press Wednesday evening that two more victims were among those hurt.
Three people died at the scenes. The fourth died at a hospital.
Police later identified those victims as a 15-year-old girl, a 63-year-old woman, a 49-year-old man and a 22-year-old man. Their names were not released.
Redd said residents in the area were being asked to review their home surveillance footage for anything related to the attacks.
The suspect was arrested by a Winnebago County deputy, Sheriff Gary Caruana said. A neighbor said she witnessed the arrest. “All of a sudden, we heard police run up on both sides of the house screaming ‘Stop! Get down!’” Vanessa Hy told WREX-TV. “Then they ran into a backyard and after a few minutes we saw them bringing the suspect down the driveway in handcuffs, and he was very bloody.”
“It was like a movie, you know, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Hy added.
Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara wrote on the city’s Facebook page that “multiple jurisdictions” are “working on multiple crime scenes to develop an understanding of what transpired in an effort to prevent this from happening again.”
“We can report that the suspect is in custody, and the threat has been neutralized,” McNamara added.
Rockford officials are providing counseling services, the city said.
Cassandra Hernandez, another neighbor, told the Rockford paper that she is friends with one of the victims.
“You never expect this here,” Hernandez said. “We have such great neighbors.”