Six children among nine injured in Idaho mass stabbing

Boise police investigate at a crime scene near the corner of State and Wyle Sts in Boise after a stabbing attack on residents in an apartment building. Photo / AP

A man who was recently asked to leave a Boise apartment complex is suspected of going on a stabbing rampage there that injured nine people, including six children, police said yesterday. Four of the victims have life-threatening injuries.

Timmy Kinner, 30, is facing nine counts of aggravated battery and six counts of injury to a child.

The Boise Police Department said they believe Kinner, from Los Angeles, was a temporary resident of the apartment complex but had been asked to leave on Friday. The complex houses many resettled refugee families, but Kinner is not a refugee. Police said they do not yet have an exact motive for the attack.

Timmy Kinner, 30, stabbed nine people, including six children. Photo / AP

At 8.46pm on Saturday, police responded to a report of a man with a knife at the complex. When they arrived they found stabbing victims both inside the complex and in the parking lot; Kinner was arrested a short distance away.

"This incident is not a representation of our community but a single evil individual who attacked people without provocation that we are aware of at this time," Bones said during a press conference Saturday night.

He said the attack resulted in the most victims in a single incident in Boise Police Department history. "As you can imagine, the Wylie St Apartment and our community is reeling from this attack," he said.

Bones said police believe the knife used in the stabbing was discarded by the suspect before his arrest and police searched around the apartment complex and in a nearby canal.

The apartment complex is just off of one of Boise's busier streets, separated from the traffic by one of the many irrigation canals that run through the city. Police closed roughly a mile of the road during the initial investigation and later rerouted traffic to the lanes farthest from the complex using flares and barricades.

Early Sunday morning there were still dozens of police cars and officers at the apartment complex, with yellow evidence markers placed around the parking lot. Officers told some residents of the complex who were trying to go home that they should either find a motel or go to a nearby church for shelter, because the complex wouldn't be opened to residents before daylight.

Victim witness coordinators and counselors were being made available to the victims, their families and friends and other residents of the apartment complex, Bones said.

"Our hearts go out to the victims who are in the hospital tonight, please keep them and their families in your thoughts and prayers," he said.

Boise Mayor Dave Bieter condemned the attack on Twitter.

"Last night's horrific attack does not represent Boise," Bieter wrote. "Please join me in praying for the injured and their families. We must come together to condemn this vile act."

- AP