05-01-2010, 11:39 AM
http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/ma ... s/19460663
Quote:(April 30) -- Authorities in River Hill, Wis., have arrested a 16-year-old boy for attacking another youth with a machete while dressed in "ninja-style" clothing. Police say the suspect in the case claimed he was "protecting" the woods where the incident took place, behind a local high school.
"[It's] absolutely one of the more bizarre cases [we've seen]," River Hills Police Chief Thomas R. Rischmann told AOL News.
According to Rischmann, police were dispatched to Nicolet High School on Tuesday to investigate a reported battery. When the responding officer arrived on the scene, he observed a high school student with a deep laceration to his forehead. The victim told police he was attacked by a "ninja."
River Hills Police Department
Police say they retrieved these weapons from the home of a 16-year-old boy accused of attacking another youth with a machete in the Wisconsin woods.
The victim, along with three other teens, had entered the woods looking for the masked assailant after two female students told them of an earlier run-in with the individual.
"On [Monday], two female Nicolet High School students entered the wooded area in question after school," Rischmann said. "At that time, the students stated, they were confronted by a subject dressed as a 'ninja.'"
The girls told police the teen, who was dressed in black clothing and wore a black mask, was armed with a sword and a bow. When one of the girls saw the teen drawing an arrow back in the bow, both girls fled.
The next day, "four male students, who are friends, decided to go look for the 'ninja,'" Rischmann said. "As they entered the wooded area, the victim separated himself from the group briefly and was confronted by [the teen]."
According to Rischmann, the "ninja" yelled at the victim and told him he was on "private property." A brief physical altercation ensued, during which the teen withdrew a machete from a sheath attached to his back. The teen then "swung the machete at the victim," striking him above the right eye, Rischmann said.
Afterward, the victim's friends began yelling at the suspect, and he fled into a nearby house.
The victim needed approximately 20 stitches to close the wound.
At the teenage suspect's house, police confiscated a long sword and a machete. They took him into custody without incident and transported him to the Milwaukee County Children's Center. He is currently free on bond, and charges are still pending.
"The district attorney is waiting on additional information and witness statements, which we are working on getting to him," Rischmann said.
Police are unaware of a motive in the case, other than the suspect's statement that he was "protecting the woods," Rischmann said. The suspect is not a student at Nicolet High School but is home-schooled.
It remains unclear whether the suspect is suffering from mental impairment, although Rischmann said it is possible.
"Me being a police officer and not a clinical person, I can't really say one way or the other, [but] one might surmise that," he said.