NEW YORK TIMES
A 22-year-old Illinois man charged with killing four people and injuring seven others in a stabbing and beating rampage told detectives that he had become paranoid after smoking marijuana given to him by one of the victims, the authorities said on Thursday.
The suspect, Christian Soto, 22, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of home invasion in connection with the attacks in a residential neighborhood in Rockford, Ill., on Wednesday, the authorities said at a news conference.
“There may be more charges, and I think there probably will be more charges at the time that we present this to the grand jury,” J. Hanley, the Winnebago County state’s attorney, said at the news conference. Mr. Hanley said there could be federal charges because a postal worker was among those killed.
Mr. Soto told detectives that he had been friends with one of the people who died in the attack and he did not mention a connection to any of the other victims. While detectives say the motive is not clear, they said that Mr. Soto told them he believed that drugs given to him by his friend were “laced” with “an unknown psychotic,” Mr. Hanley said, adding that Mr. Soto “said he became paranoid after the drug usage.”
Mr. Soto appeared in court on Thursday afternoon. He will remain in the Winnebago County Jail until at least next Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Winnebago County state attorney’s office said.
Mr. Soto told detectives that he had gone to his friend Jacob D. Schupbach’s home to smoke marijuana, Mr. Hanley said. Mr. Soto said he believed the drugs made him paranoid and that he went into his friend’s kitchen, got a knife and stabbed both Mr. Schupbach, 23, and his mother, Ramona L. Schupbach, 63, to death.
Witnesses said they saw the suspect chase Mr. Schupbach across the street and that they saw the suspect hit and stab Mr. Schupbach while he was on the ground, the authorities said. They then saw the suspect get into a black Chevy Silverado that had been parked in the driveway, and run over Mr. Schupbach at the end of the driveway. The suspect chased Mr. Schupbach back into the house, and then exited the home shortly after, Mr. Hanley said.
A witness reported seeing the suspect on top of and punching the postal worker, Jay P. Larson, 49, the authorities said. The suspect then got a knife out of the black pickup truck, stabbed Mr. Larson numerous times, and ran him over with his truck more than once, Mr. Hanley said.
The suspect later entered another home and attacked three girls who were home during spring break watching a movie, according to the authorities. One victim, identified as S.D.N. because she is a minor, went downstairs to let two other girls, who had been watching a movie in the basement, know that a man covered in blood had broken into the house, the authorities said. The suspect grabbed a bat, yelled gendered expletives at them, and then swung the bat at the girls, they said. The suspect killed one of them, identified as J.A.N., 15, the authorities said.
The authorities noted only that Mr. Soto had known Jacob and Ramona Schupbach before the attack.
Mr. Hanley said that Mr. Soto had previously been charged with a class four felony in 2022 for criminal damage to property. “He was alleged to have spun out his car on Black Hawk Forest preserve,” the Winnebago County state attorney said, adding that Mr. Soto also had “some traffic matters.”
Three victims died at the scene, and a fourth died at a hospital, the authorities said on Wednesday.
Seven other people were injured on Wednesday and were taken to hospitals. As of Thursday, four out of five victims injured in the City of Rockford had been released, according to Carla Redd, the police chief in Rockford.
“We have one victim that is currently still in the hospital and listed in stable condition,” Chief Redd said.
The police noted that no one else was being sought in the attack. “We don’t believe there’s any other suspects that are on the run or at large at this particular time,” Chief Redd said at the news conference on Wednesday.
Sheriff Gary Caruana of Winnebago County said that among the injured victims was a woman who was running away from the suspect after an apparent home invasion. She and a person who had tried to help had stab wounds, the sheriff added.
The chief added that not all the victims had been stabbed, though she noted that no gunshots had been fired.
Four patients were taken to OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, a hospital spokesman confirmed.
Mayor Tom McNamara of Rockford said at the news conference on Wednesday that the episode had shaken the community, a city of about 150,000 people that is some 80 miles outside Chicago, which was already reeling from the fatal stabbing of an 18-year-old employee inside a Walmart on Sunday. A man was charged with murder in that killing.
Just last month, the police celebrated a report showing that violent crimes dropped by 19 percent in the city last year, though homicides were up from 2022.
On Wednesday, the police said that they had received calls for police and emergency assistance beginning about 1:15 p.m. The suspect was in custody by 1:35 p.m., the authorities said.
Photos from a crime scene showed police tape blocking off large portions of a street in the residential neighborhood, as fire and patrol vehicles arrived.
Vanessa Hy said that she and her husband were watching television in their living room when she heard police outside their home shouting commands at the suspect, who was in her backyard.
“After about a minute or two, I looked out the side window,” Ms. Hy said in a phone interview. “They had the man. He was full of blood.”
The suspect appeared to resist officers as they put him into a squad car in front of her home, Ms. Hy added. She said that it was hard to tell if the blood that covered him was his own.
Ms. Hy said she was relieved that her two children were away on spring break.
“It was almost like a rampage,” she said. “I can’t logically put any of it together.”
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