Illinois remembers 4 slain in Rockford knife attack after authorities charge 22-year-old man in rampage

ROCKFORD, Ill. — Early Thursday, Craig Garr stood in his driveway in southeast Rockford and watched a tow service load his Jeep Grand Cherokee onto the bed of a truck.

Blood was still spattered on his driveway. It was on his door frame, on his yard decorations and all over two rocks that usually sat by his front door but on Thursday were lying near a set of deep tire tracks on his front lawn.

From his kitchen window and then his front door on Wednesday, Garr, 74, witnessed a man stab, beat up and run over the neighborhood’s longtime mail carrier, killing him in an attack that authorities said spanned multiple homes throughout the neighborhood and left four dead, including a 15-year-old girl, and seven injured.

Christian Soto, 22, of Winnebago County, was charged Thursday with 11 counts of murder or attempted murder and two counts of home invasion with a deadly weapon for allegedly carrying out the attacks, according to Winnebago County sheriff records. Soto said after his arrest that he had gone on the violent spree after becoming paranoid under the influence of drugs he thought were contaminated, officials said Thursday.

Court records show Soto lives about a block from where the attacks took place. He is being held at the Winnebago County Jail and is set to be back in court next week.

Authorities said Thursday that Soto used a knife and a baseball bat to attack the victims and attempted to run over some of them with his truck. Rockford Mayor Thomas McNamara identified the dead as Ramona Schupbach, 63, Jacob Schupbach, 23, Jay Larson, 49, and Jenna Newcomb, 15.

Garr’s mail came early Wednesday afternoon. It was two pieces. Just after the letters came through the slot, Garr said he was in his computer room and heard “a commotion, like a garbage truck.”

“I looked out my window and I saw a guy hovering by my window. And then I saw the mail guy down there and he was just beating the (expletive) out of him,” he said. “And I said, ‘What are you doing?’ And the guy said, ‘He stole money from me.'”

Then the letter carrier, Larson, rolled over. He recognized Garr. “He said, ‘Call 911.'”

Garr said the man beating up the mail carrier saw he had the phone in his hand and made for the front door. Garr shut and bolted the door “so he couldn’t get in the house.”

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