By Maggie Vespa and Rebecca Cohen -
NBC News
A mother who was injured in a stabbing Wednesday in Illinois testified that if it hadn't been for her son, who was also attacked, she and her daughter might not have survived after the attacker entered the home.
Darlene Weber and her children, Jacob Vollman, 21, and Cathy Gilfillan, 23, described the assault. Christian Soto is accused of the attack that took place Wednesday afternoon, in which four people died and seven others were injured, including Weber and her children.
“I mean, this is, like, my knight in shining armor, and he's my son. It was like God sent it to me and gave me a gift in a small package, and I was blessed with it,” said Weber, 46, in an interview this Thursday.
Police investigate the March 27, 2024, stabbings in Rockford, Illinois, that left several people dead and others injured. Associated Press
"I'm not kidding. If it weren't for him, I don't think I would be here talking right now,” she said, referring to his son. “Really, he wouldn't be there. He was terrifying.”
Soto was arrested on charges of
murder, attempted murder and burglary
.
Winnebago County State's Attorney J. Hanley said Soto admitted to the crimes and said he
used marijuana he believed was “mixed with an unknown narcotic”
before the attacks at multiple locations in Rockford and an area from Winnebago County, shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said.
The attack
Weber explained that she and her two children – all with visible injuries – were at home Wednesday afternoon when she took her pit bull dog, Brandy, out the back door and heard a man say “hello” to her before stabbing her in the head. expensive.
As she crawled through the house screaming for Vollman to help her, she said, Brandy jumped on the man and bit him, giving him enough time to escape.
“It all happened in the blink of an eye,” Weber said. “Looking back on it, it was almost as if he had literally tried to kill me.”
[The alleged murder of an 8-year-old girl inflames the population in Guerrero]
She added that Vollman then approached the man while she tried to find her phone and call 911.
Vollman claimed he went to look for his mother, who was screaming for help, “and when I turn my head, he's standing, like, right there. He literally looks at me and says, 'Come here,' and he starts advancing on me, and then he tries to stab me a couple of times." He added that he fought the man “head on.”
The suspect, Christian Soto.Associated Press
He said he was hit with a metal ring on the underside of the knife, but was not stabbed with the blade.
After a couple of minutes of fighting with Vollman, the attacker turned to Gilfillan, who had just woken up at 1 pm to shouts of “help, help” and “get out of my house, you can't be here,” he said.
He added that he ran upstairs, where he found his brother “boxing” with the man. At first he thought he might be one of his brother's friends; Then, she said, the man turned toward her and
“hit me”
after which he fell into the fetal position.
[A shooting in King City, California, leaves four dead and three injured]
He said he was about to hit her again when his brother started “hitting” him with a bottle of maple syrup.
According to Gilfillan, the attacker “escaped” through the back door, just as the police arrived.
“If it weren't for him,” she said, referring to Vollman, “Mom and I wouldn't be here.”
"The devil incarnate"
Vollman said the attacker “had the biggest smile in the world on his face” when he approached him at the house, and Gilfillan said his eyes looked completely black.
“He didn't have brown eyes. His pupil was straight, like he was on drugs or something,” Gilfillan stated.
Weber said: “He looked like the devil incarnate.”
The three survivors claimed the man was covered in blood when he arrived home, including his hands, a sweater and pants.
“It was like a horror movie,” Weber said.
The attacks also claimed the lives of Soto's friend, Jacob Schupbach, 23; the mother of his friend, Ramona Schupbach, 63; a mailman who covered his route, Jay Larson; and Jenna Newcomb, 15, who died saving her sister.
Soto confessed to police that he went to Jacob Schupbach's house on Wednesday afternoon to smoke marijuana and that he believed it was adulterated, which made him paranoid, Hanley, the public attorney, told reporters.
Soto “said he grabbed a knife from the kitchen of Jacob's house and
proceeded to stab Jacob and Ramona
to death,” Hanley said.
Weber said: “I can't understand what happened yesterday. It's so hard to sit here and talk about this. I can't even imagine the image of him standing there, saying 'hello' to me and then the attack. “I can imagine what the others went through.”