Four people were killed and five others were injured in a stabbing in northern Illinois, authorities said Wednesday.
Rockford Police Chief Carla Redd said the suspect was in police custody and was being questioned Wednesday afternoon.
She said one of the injured remained in critical condition.
“My heart goes out to the families who are suffering this loss right now,” Red told reporters.
She said Rockford police received a medical call at 1:14 p.m. and then called additional police and paramedics.
“There are four people who have died,” Redd said.
“One person is currently in critical condition and four others are in stable condition.”
Redd said not all of the victims had stab wounds and none had been shot.
Three people died at the scene.
The fourth person died at the hospital.
“We do not believe there are any other suspects at large or at large at this time,” she said.
“At this time, there is no clear motive as to why this individual committed such a heinous crime.”
Mr Redd said residents in the area were being asked to check their home CCTV footage for anything related to the attack.
Rockford has a population of approximately 150,000 and is located 90 miles (144.84 km) northwest of Chicago.
Wednesday’s violence came days after a teenage Walmart employee in Rockford was stabbed to death inside the store.
“Today we are shocked by another horrific act of violence against innocent people in our community,” said Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara.
While the suspect is currently in custody, “our primary concern is to ensure that the community members directly affected by this violence are supported in their healing and recovery.” Ta.
The mayor wrote on the city’s Facebook page that “multiple jurisdictions” are “working on multiple crime scenes to understand what happened to prevent it from happening again.”
Sheriff Gary Caruana said the suspect was arrested by Winnebago County sheriff’s deputies who responded to a report of a home invasion.
“The young woman ran away from him,” Caruana said of one of the survivors.
“She had several stab wounds to her hands and face. She is in critical condition. One of the good Samaritans stopped and helped her. He sustained several stab wounds. He is being checked out.”
Resident Eric Patterson said he was having a hard time understanding the violence on the street.
“You can’t rationalize this,” Patterson told the Rockford Register-Star.
“It’s like playing a video game, but this is real life. It makes no sense. It’s like Grand Theft Auto. ‘Here I’m going to run over a mailman. There I’m going to stab a few people. I’m going to go to my house here.”
Another neighbor, Cassandra Hernandez, told The Rockford newspaper that she was friends with one of the victims.
“I never expected something like this to happen here,” Hernandez said.
“We have really great neighbors.”
