The suspect police accused of killing four people and injuring seven others during a stabbing rampage in Rockford Wednesday will make his first court appearance Thursday.
22-year-old Christian Soto was taken into custody for the incident Wednesday, according to Rockford officials. He faces more than 12 charges, including charges of murder and home invasion. Soto is expected to make his first court appearance at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
“My heart goes out to the families right now that are suffering a loss,” Rockford Police Chief Carla Redd said during a press conference Wednesday. Redd went on to say that police were still searching for a motive.
According to Redd, Rockford Police received a medical call at 1:14 p.m. followed by additional calls for police and paramedics.
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. According to NBC Chicago affiliate WREX-TV, a mail carrier was among those killed.
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According to officials, four of the victims who were injured were in stable condition. One was in critical condition, and one was in serious conditions, officials said.
Redd said residents in the area were being asked to review their home surveillance camera footage for anything related to the attacks.
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Rockford’s population is about 150,000 and it’s 90 miles (145 kilometers) miles northwest of Chicago. The violence Wednesday came days after a teenage employee of a Walmart in Rockford was stabbed and killed inside the store.
“Today, we are shocked by another horrific act of violence against innocent members of our community,” Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara said. Now that the suspect is in custody, he continued, “Our primary concern is ensuring that our community members directly impacted by this violence are supported throughout their healing and recovery.”
The mayor 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.”
The suspect was arrested by a Winnebago County sheriff’s deputy after they were called to a reported home invasion, Sheriff Gary Caruana said.
“The young lady ran from him,” Caruana said of one of the survivors. “She got some stab wounds in her hands and her face. She is in serious condition. One of the good Samaritans stopped to help her out. He did get some stab wounds. He is being checked out.”
Resident Eric Patterson said he was struggling to make sense of the violence on his street.
“You can’t rationalize this,” Patterson told the Rockford Register Star. “It’s almost like playing a video game, but it’s reality. It makes no sense. It’s like Grand Theft Auto. ‘I’m going to run over the mailman here. I’m going to stab a couple people there. I am going to go in this house over here.’”
Another resident, Vanessa Hy, told WREX-TV in Rockford that the experience of witnessing the arrest was unreal, “like a movie.”
“All of the sudden, we heard police run up on both sides of the house screaming ‘Stop! Get down!’” Hy told the station. “Then they ran into the backyard and after a few minutes we saw them bringing the suspect down the driveway in handcuffs and he was very bloody.”
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.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker offered his condolences in wake of the tragedy.
