Return to Transcripts main page
Breaking News
Killing Rampage Leaves Five Dead in Sacramento
Aired August 20, 2001 - 16:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's continuing coverage now of a terrible killing rampage out in the Sacramento area. Five people are known to be killed and police are now looking for a 27-year-old suspect believed to be related to those who were killed.
Just a short time ago our affiliate KVOR in Sacramento interviewed a young man who described the family members who were killed. Let's listen to his comments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guy came -- he came to the older one. He killed two parents, grandparents. Then he run outside to the other side of duplex, and a child, the small boy he know him -- he run to him like to meet him. He killed him, too. Then, just (UNINTELLIGIBLE) got lucky because he was upstairs and he didn't saw him. Because I think if she will go downstairs, he probably going to kill her, too.
QUESTION: Did you see this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, the -- they sort of asked to translate for him, because a lot of old people don't know English. So I was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and that's what I heard. Young boy over here, he said that he saw the guy. Because the small boy who got killed, they was close friends, every time playing over here. And that's what he told.
QUESTION: How did he kill him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had a big knife or something. He just cut them (UNINTELLIGIBLE). That's what I heard. There's a lot of people heard somebody like yelling. They just run outside and then, that's what they saw. But nobody saw him, just a couple kids.
QUESTION: The young girl who escaped, what did she look like?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she's like 10, 8, 11.
QUESTION: Long hair?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. They were like good kids. I know them because I know the brothers, you know, I know the parents. And we've got a close relationship. QUESTION: So he was not related to the brothers though, or was his wife related to the brothers?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they was kind of related, because cousin or something. I'm not really sure yet.
QUESTION: But the two, the dead elderly people are the brothers?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The two, yes.
QUESTION: Brothers?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
QUESTION: But the two elderly is a man and woman, though, no?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was two brothers living there and the grandparents was living (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And he came and he killed the grandparents.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHEN: Again, this is an interview done by KOVR, one of our affiliates in Sacramento, just a short time ago with a young man who said he was asked by police to participate with them in their investigation doing some translating. He noted that some of the older people in this community do not speak English well, and therefore he was asked to join in and help a little bit in trying to help the police understand what had happened here.
Now, here's the information as we have got it from the sheriff's department. In a community called North Highlands, one of the suburb commutes of Sacramento, about 10:00 this morning, they received contact from someone calling the 911 and saying there was a woman who was stabbed. When deputies arrived at the scene they found that the woman had been killed. She had died of some stab wounds.
They were then called to a second location. There was some confusion about the second location but ultimately when they arrived there they found two elderly people who were dead inside the home. This witness who just spoke to KOVR had described them as the grandparents of the family but again, that has not been confirmed by the police. They only said that it was an elderly man and woman who were living in the home. And they were found dead inside. Outside the home they found a baby boy dead on the pavement right outside the home. And as well, they found at the location a 9-year-old girl who was critically wounded and subsequently died on her way to the hospital.
Now, there has been a lot of confusion about the community there. They did say, according to the sheriff's department, there's been a bit of a language problem. The sheriff's department had described the people living in this community as being a lot of Russian immigrants. However, there seems to be some debate about whether they were Ukrainian or Russian. Again, the description by the sheriff's department was that they were Russian immigrants living in this community. But clearly there has been a language barrier, a bit of a difficulty there in the community. And as you heard from that young man, he was saying that he was asked because of the language problems to even help to participate and help translate on behalf of the police so they could get more information from people living in the community.
That young man also reported to KOVR TV that witnesses to the scene -- and he said that he was not one of them -- but he said that witnesses had said that there was yelling, that one of the children had approached the suspect, apparently trying to greet the suspect, but was killed by him, very tragically in front of the home. He said that there was a big knife involved, but he did not make any further elaboration on what sort of weapon the witnesses said had been used.
Again, collecting a great deal of information from our affiliates there. You last heard from someone who talked to KOVR TV. You're seeing pictures from KCRA. As well, we've heard from KXTV and we're continuing to gather information from all sources as well as the sheriff's department of Sacramento County, continuing to follow up and bring you the latest information as we know it right now.
Right now the greatest concern is that the suspect, who police have identified as 27-year-old Nikolay Soltys, is still at large. They do not know where he is. They last identified him as driving a silver Nissan Altima, but they say that these are communities very close to a highway and they are not sure what direction of flight the suspect might have taken from those locations. But they did say his vehicle was seen at both the locations and that is why they are searching for him at this point.
CNN's coverage continues. We'll take a break here and have more after this.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
