A teenager who saw his best friend stabbed in Wisconsin‘s Apple River has described the moment the alleged attacker charged at them.
Owen Peloquin, 19, testified in court on Monday during the second week of the trial, detailing the moment engineer Nicolae Miu, 54, attacked the group with a knife after they jeered and called him ” pedophile”.
“He just, strangely, ran towards us, made us all very uncomfortable,” Peloquin said before cellphone video of the 2022 encounter was shown in court.
In the video, Peloquin was heard saying ‘Hey, back off,’ but he said Miu didn’t listen and instead held on to her water tubes.
Miu from Prior Lake, Minnesota, claimed she stabbed them in “self-defense” after the tuber group claimed she was “looking for little girls” on July 30, 2022.
He was charged with first-degree intentional homicide after Isaac Shuman, 17, died and four other people were injured. He was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide for his injuries.
Owen Peloquin, 19, testified in court on Monday during the second week of the trial, detailing the moment engineer Nicolae Miu, 54, attacked the group with a knife on July 30, 2022.
Miu, of Pior Lake, Minnesota, claimed her fatal stabbing was “self-defense” after the tuber crew claimed she was “looking for girls in the Apple River.”
During his testimony, Peloquin said he regretted calling Miu a ‘pedophile’ and wished he and his friends would act differently that day.
When Shuman was attacked by Miu, Peloquin said he didn’t see him being stabbed, but ran over to him and took him to shore with his other friend Alex.
“I did my best to stop the bleeding,” Peloquin said, visibly emotional.
Schuman was then taken by ambulance to Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, where he was pronounced dead.
As the witness’ testimony progressed, Mui’s defense attorney, Corey Chirafisi, showed photos of the incident and questioned Peloquin’s reactions.
With his mouth wide open while in the river, the teenager said he was in “pure shock” when he saw the knife in Miu’s hand.
After that, footage showed him stepping forward as a prosecutor asked him what he was doing. Peloquin said he was trying to grab Ryan Nelson, another friend of his who was in the group.
Chirafisi asked the teenager: ‘Do you think your actions there with the rest of your friends are making fun of him?’
“It could be considered so,” replied PeloquÃn.
Chirafisi has maintained that on the day of the attack his client was provoked by the group.
Chirafisi said the group recorded Mui on their phones when they made the decision to leave him alone.
While questioning Peloquin about the timing of the attack, Chirafisi said, “You wanted to see it end because it was recorded, right?”
‘Jawahn Cockfield was videotaping all of this, wasn’t he? You wanted to see how this film developed.
Cockfield was another teenager who was with the group at the lake that day.
Ryhley Mattinson, AJ, Martin, Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson were the other four teenagers stabbed that day.
The video then shows the chilling moment when another member of the group falls into the river as a pool of red water emerges around them.
In addition to Peloquin, others testified in court Monday morning, including doctor Brian Myer, who treated the four surviving teens at Regional Hospital.
He said Mattinson had to undergo emergency surgery and when he arrived his blood alcohol level was at 0.09.
While tending to his injuries, Myer was notified that Martin would be flown to the hospital and that his heart stopped several times along the way.
Martin also required emergency surgery and follow-up procedures. His blood alcohol level was not measured at that time, Myer said.
Carlson suffered penetrating trauma from the sounds of his stab wound and had to have a hernia repaired, Myer said. Her blood alcohol level was 0.09.
During the first week of the trial, on April 1, the court reviewed video that captured the intense moments before and during the stabbing.
Miu was seen aggressively approaching the tubers, including the person filming, as they interrupted him and laughed at him, telling him to “back away.”
Then a woman approached Miu ordering her to get away from the group, while one of the boys shouted ‘he was looking for girls’.
The video then showed the group pushing Miu into the water repeatedly and punching him as he struggled to get up.
Isaac Shuman, 17, died after Miu stabbed him in the chest. Peloquin, Shuman’s best friend, said he did everything he could to stop the bleeding and save him.
Miu is seen approaching the group (left). Someone is seen with her arms around Miu’s neck during the incident (right)
The members of the group then began to shout: ‘Did he hit a woman?’
The woman clutched her side in shock as blood began to gush and it became apparent that she had been stabbed.
The video then showed the chilling moment another member of the group fell into the river as a pool of red water emerged around them.
Chaos ensued as the group quickly dispersed. The cameraman yelled “this isn’t real” as more blood stained the water.
The distressing images were suddenly cut off.
Miu’s wife, Sondra, told detectives that the violent altercation began after Miu, whose group was upriver, returned and found a “phone that was lost” while wearing snorkel gear.
As he watched, Sondra said, “a group of guys got off the tubes and started beating him.”
The group reportedly accused Miu of “targeting little girls” and being a “child molester” after he had been diving between two groups on either side of the river looking for the phone, according to video seen by the district attorney’s office. of St. Croix. in Wisconsin.
Miu was charged with first-degree intentional homicide after Isaac Shuman, 17, died and four other people were injured. He was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide for his injuries.
Miu’s wife, Sondra, told detectives that the violent altercation began after Miu, whose group was upriver, returned and found a “phone that was lost” while wearing snorkel gear.
Ryhley Mattinson, AJ, Martin, Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson were the other four teenagers stabbed that day.
The 20-somethings approached Miu after seeing him chatting with a group of teenagers who seemed “uncomfortable” as he was supposedly asking “young girls'” numbers.
Miu originally told police she got the knife from some tubers and fought in “self-defense,” but Sondra claimed the weapon was attached to her belt.
The district attorney’s office said there was “enough blood in the river that the water took on a red tint in some places.”
During an interview, Miu told him that he “escaped” from the group and that Schuman’s group “produced two weapons.”
He claimed the group taunted him after he asked them if they had seen his friend’s phone and that one of the boys tried to “pull his trunk down,” according to the complaint.
Miu said she noticed that “the boy had a knife on him” and that someone else had a “longer knife” that looked like a kitchen knife.
The engineer said he “took” the knife from the boy during the altercation after twisting his arm. He claimed that “they attacked me” and that he was “in self-defense mode.”
He pleaded not guilty to the charges in September 2022 and his lawyers argued that the man stabbed the teenagers in an act of self-defense.