Man stabs 9 at child’s birthday party, Boise police report
A man targeted children attending a 3-year-old’s birthday party during a stabbing spree that wounded nine people at an apartment complex in Idaho on Saturday night, the police said.
The man, identified as Timmy Kinner, 30, had returned to the complex, Wylie Street Station Apartments, around 8:45 p.m. Saturday, a day after he was asked to leave, Bill Bones, the police chief in Boise, Idaho, said at a newsconference on Sunday.
Mr. Kinner began attacking the children with a knife, said Chief Bones, who was visibly emotional as he described a scene of victims scattered across the apartment complex, in the street andon the walkway.
Among the victims, he said, were the 3-year-old who was celebrating her birthday, two 4-year-olds, a 6-year-old, an8-year-old and a 12-year-old. The three other victims were adults who tried to intervene. As of Sunday afternoon, each of the victims has survived, though four received life threatening injuries.
“This was an attack against those who are most vulnerable — our children,” Chief Bonessaid.
Mr. Kinner has not cooperated with officials so the motive of his attack remained unclear, but the victims seem to have beentargeted based on where they lived.
The complex is home to some refugees, Chief Bones said, but there was no evidence that the attack was a hatecrime, he said.
Julianne Donnelly Tzul, executive director of the International Rescue Committee in Boise, a humanitarian organization, said the victims were refugees from Syria,Iraq and Ethiopia.
Mr. Kinner of Los Angeles, who is not a refugee, was charged with multiple felony counts of battery and injury to a child. Mr. Kinner has an extensive criminal history spanning multiple states, including a prison sentence in Kentucky, Chief Bones said, without elaboration.
A resident of the complex allowed Mr. Kinner to stay at her apartment after he said he needed a place to go, Chief Bones said. Mr. Kinner was asked to leave on Friday because of his behavior and he did so peacefully at the time, he said.
Mr. Kinner’s return to the complex on Saturday night was about seeking vengeance,Chief Bones said.