Refugees re-live pain after mass stabbings

BOISE, IDAHO •Families who had fled danger and violence overseas were enjoying a 3-year-old’s birthday party in Boise, Idaho, when the unthinkable happened: A man ran up and began chasing and stabbing the children, then turned his knife on the adults who tried to stop him.

The attack Saturday night at a low-income apartment complex that is home to refugee families from around the world had injured nine people, including the birthday girl and five other children ranging in age from 4 to 12. The most gravely wounded were clinging to life Sunday evening, Boise Police Chief William Bones said.

“The victims are some of the newest members of our community,” Bones said Sunday. “This was an attack against those who are most vulnerable.”

Members of refugee families from Syria, Iraq and Ethiopia were among the injured.

Police arrived less than four minutes after receiving a report of a man with a knife and found victims lying in the street, in the parking lot and inside the complex. Timmy Kinner, 30, was arrested a short distance away.

Kinner, who is not a refugee, had been asked to leave the apartment complex Friday after staying with a resident there for a short time, Bones said.

He faces several felony charges, including aggravated battery and injury to a child. The police chief did not know if Kinner had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

“We have no specific evidence at this time to believe it was a hate crime,” Bones told reporters Sunday, saying the victims may have been targeted simply because of where they were on the property.

But the motive is still being investigated, the police chief said.

Esrom Habte, 12, and Fathi Mahamoud, 11, were playing in the grass behind their apartment when the attack began.

They ran for safety when they saw the suspect chasing people.

“We saw a killer and didn’t want to get stabbed,” Esrom said. “We saw him saying, like, bad words and stabbing a kid and a grownup really hard and a lot of times.”

The two ran into an apartment and hid in a closet with Esrom’s two sisters and another child. They stayed inside until police told them it was safe.

The attack resulted in the most victims in a single incident in Boise Police Department history, Bones said.

For some of the refugees, the attack revived traumatic memories of war and violence they had fled. The blood from the stabbings reminded Fathi’s mother, Thado Aip, of the terror she left in Somalia, an interpreter said.

Fathi stayed close to his mother Sunday, at times sitting on the grass to lean against her legs as he watched officers at the crime scene.