6 children among 9 people wounded in knife attack at Idaho apartments that house refugees

John Bacon | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Refugee children among Idaho stabbing victims Boise, Idaho, police say the suspect in a mass stabbing that injured nine people had targeted a three-year-old girl's birthday party. (July 1)

A knife-wielding attacker stormed into a 3-year-old's birthday party and slashed nine people at an Idaho apartment complex that provides housing to refugees, Boise police said Sunday.

Six of the victims were ages 3-12, and the others were adults, Police Chief William Bones said. Four of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries, he said, and some injuries will be "life-altering."

Bones said officers were called to the Wylie Street Station Apartments on Saturday night and quickly found the suspect not far from the site of the attack. Timmy Kinner, 30, was arrested without further incident, police said.

Kinner, of Los Angeles, was booked into the Ada County Jail on nine counts of aggravated battery and six counts of injury to a child.

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

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The victims, who included members of the refugee community, were found in the parking lot and inside the complex. Bones said investigators were trying to determine why the suspect targeted them.

"It's a community within our community," Bones said. "We had children from different continents sitting at a small child's birthday party."

Kinner, who has a criminal record, has not been cooperative with investigators, Bones said.

Kinner is not a refugee but had been a temporary resident of the apartments until he was asked to leave Friday. Bones did not say why Kinner was kicked out, but he echoed Bieter's assurances that the crime in no way reflects on the attitudes of the city's 220,000 people in a metropolitan area dubbed "Treasure Valley."

"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.

The knife used in the stabbing was discarded before his arrest, and police searched the complex and a nearby canal for the weapon.

Bones said the number of victims was the most in a single incident in city history. Counselors were assisting the families, he said.

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

The attack came a few hours after and 3 miles from a "Families Belong Together" immigration rally at the State Capitol that drew thousands of protesters.

The apartment complex, minutes away from downtown, provides HUD-certified, low-income housing in one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Northwest Real Estate Capital Corp., which operates the apartments, specializes in the property management and rehabilitation of HUD/Section 8 housing.

The Idaho Office for Refugees, which opened in the 1970s to help resettle people fleeing the overthrow of U.S.-supported governments in Southeast Asia, says recent refugee arrivals to Idaho include large numbers from Iraq, Congo, Burma, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Bones said residents of the Wylie Street Station complex are a tight-knit community.

"It's affected all aspects of the families within the apartment buildings," Bones said. "As you can imagine, the witnesses in the apartment complex along with the rest of our community are reeling from this attack."