Michmutters

SOMERSET, Wis. — On Monday afternoon, a 52-year-old Minnesota man was charged in the stabbings that happened along the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin over the weekend.

Charges filed in St. Croix County against Nicolae Miu, from Prior Lake, include one count of first-degree intentional homicide and four additional counts of attempted first-degree homicide.

The five victims range in age from 17 to 24 and were from Wisconsin and Minnesota. Investigators say that the five victims have sustained stab wounds to their midsections. Two have since been released from the hospital, but one of them died as a result of his injuries.

Authorities said the deceased victim is a 17-year-old boy from Stillwater. A representative from Stillwater High School confirmed Sunday that the victim was a student there.

The St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office says the suspect was tubing along the river with a group when he started stabbing other tubers then took off. It happened near the sunrise bridge in Somerset Saturday afternoon and prompted an hour-and-half long search and evacuation of the river.

According to the criminal complaint, the stabbings happened after a confrontation between Miu and a number of others. The complaint lists multiple videos that have been taken into evidence, which show Miu interacting with the group, who can be heard telling him to go away. The video shows Miu appearing to look for something, but the complaint says some of those on the scene believed he was “looking for little girls,” and accused him of being a child molester.

Video shows that Miu, who investigators say had ample time to leave the confrontation, take a knife from his cargo pocket. According to the complaint, the video shows him being slapped and pushed by some of the gathered people. The video also shows him stabbing at some of them, including one person in yellow swim trunks. Another person is seen on the video with a stab wound on the left side of her torso.

The complaint says that Miu’s knife at one point visibly had blood on it, and that there was enough blood in the water to turn it a red tint in some places.

The complaint also includes details from an interview investigators held with Miu. He claimed that he was fearful for her life, and that he was looking for a cell phone that went missing in the water. He said that the knife actually belonged to one of the other people on the scene. He also said he was sorry how the incident “ended up,” and that his whole life was now “down the tubes.”

In Monday’s hearing, Miu’s lawyer said this incident was a “chance encounter.” Miu was described as being an engineer who designs cooling systems.

Miu is being held at the St. Croix County jail. Bail was set at $1 million, which was double the amount requested by prosecutors..

The names of the victims have not yet been released, but one of the victims has posted her story on social media.

Anyone with information, including video, are asked to call Investigator John Shilts at 715-381-4219 or emailing [email protected].

A man arrested with a loaded AK-47 assault rifle outside the Brooklyn home of an outspoken Iranian writer is due in federal court Monday amid questions about his intent.

Khalid Mehdiyev was charged with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number after he was seen lurking outside the home of Masih Alinejad, who was targeted last year in a kidnapping plot allegedly organized by Iranian nationals, according to the Department of Justice.

Over two days last week, Mehdiyev was seen in a gray Subaru Forester with an Illinois license plate in front of Alinejad’s home for several hours, according to the criminal complaint. In those hours, the complaint said, Mehdiyev “behaved suspiciously” by approaching the residence, attempting to look inside the windows of the residence and attempting to open the front door.

Police later pulled him over for failing to stop at a stop sign. He was arrested for driving with a suspended license, according to the complaint.

In the rear seat of the Subaru, police found a suitcase containing a Norinco AK-47-style assault rifle loaded with a round in the chamber and a magazine attached, according to the complaint. He also had $1,100 in cash and two other license plates issued from other states besides Illinois.

Mehdiyev initially told police he was in the area of ​​the Brooklyn home because he was looking for a place to rent and was going to knock on the woman’s door asking to rent a room. He also claimed he did not know there was an assault rifle in the suitcase, according to the complaint. He later changed his story and admitted the gun belonged to him and he was “looking for someone.” He then asked for a lawyer and stopped talking, according to the complaint.

The complaint did not identify Alinejad but she posted video of the suspect outside her house on Twitter.

“My crime is giving voice to voiceless people,” she wrote. “The US administration must be tough on terror.”

Last July, a federal court unsealed an indictment charging four Iranian nationals with conspiring to kidnap Alinejad for “mobilizing public opinion in Iran and around the world to bring about changes to the regime’s laws and practices.”

Federal prosecutors said the suspects were directed by the government of Iran to conduct surveillance on Alinejad and lure her to a third country to be captured and brought back to Iran.

“You go to my beautiful country, you will be beaten up because you’re unveiled. … I launched a campaign against compulsory hijab, and that is why, actually, I’m receiving death threats,” Alinejad told ABC News Live last year after the kidnapping plot was revealed. [thing] that they were going to kidnap me, but that shows that they [are] frightened [of] me and millions of other Iranian women, Iranian men, who got united this time loudly sending videos to me saying ‘no’ to the Islamic Republic. That’s why they sent someone here in New York to kidnap me.”

ABC News’ Andrea Amiel, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Allie Yang contributed to this report.