A Minnesota man who stabbed one teenager to death and injured several others in a chaotic water pipe brawl “absolutely” had to use a knife to protect himself from a group of young people. He claims that he did not, or he would have been killed.
Nicolae Miu, 54, said Tuesday that provocation by a group of rioters turned physical in the attack that left 17-year-old honor student Isaac Schuman dead in Apple River, Wisconsin, on July 30, 2022. He then testified that he reached for a knife.
“I was surrounded and they were screaming. They just pushed me and they didn’t seem to be retreating,” Miu said. he said from the stand.
The engineer provided a play-by-play with video footage of the frantic moments before he plunged the knife into Schumann’s torso.
Miu, who appeared noticeably thinner than in the video from about two years ago, was seen searching for a friend’s lost cell phone in a river in St. Croix County, taking photos and “looking for a little girl.” This is said to have been criticized by a group of young people.
The murder suspect said fear “crept in” when the screams and laughter of the teens turned into a jostling.
In the video, Miu can be seen slowly taking out a Swiss Army knife, which he was holding to cut the rope on a planned water tubing adventure.
“At one point the fear got so high that I reached for my pocket knife. I was getting ready to pull myself out,” Miu said.
He testified that two teenage girls in the group were the first to grab Miu, but the altercation ended with one of the boys punching Miu in the face and throwing her into the water, “so she drowned.” It was a scary situation.”
Miu said she didn’t know how many people were attacking her, but she knew it was “out of my control.”
Miu said she was “in a fog” for the rest of the incident. One of them is said to have thrust a knife into Schumann’s torso and slashed the other four.
Schumann was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Miu admitted on the stand that she threw the knife into the water during the frenzy out of fear, saying, “I felt like I had to throw the knife away.”
When asked by her defense attorney whether she still believed it was necessary to use the knife against the group of young people, Miu claimed that if she hadn’t used it, she would have died.
“Of course,” Miu said. “I think I would have been killed that day.”
Miu has long claimed self-defense in the shocking brawl and said it continues to be a nightmare.
In an earlier recorded interview given in court, Miu likened the teens to “wolves” who were “attacking me from all directions.”
“They came to me. They beat me and got on top of me, but I don’t remember anything after that,” he said.
One witness who took the stand at the beginning of the trial claimed that Miu was the one who approached the group. Two others told authorities that Miu was the one who punched the young woman and the altercation turned physical.
Miu has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.
