Keith Fahreny was driving home from his trigonometry lesson at Rock Valley College on Wednesday afternoon when he noticed a disturbance outside his neighbor’s home.
“She kind of turned towards me, and her face was just bright red with blood,” Fahreny told ABC News.
Fahreny didn’t realize it at the time, but he had witnessed a savage stabbing spree in his neighborhood in southeast Rockford, Illinois, that authorities say killed four people and injured several others, including his neighbor.
Fahreny stated that he stopped and got out of his Jeep to see if he could assist when a man standing over the woman bolted and entered the Jeep.
“I opened up the door, grabbed him by the shirt, and threw him down on the ground, and then he kind of went after me,” said Fahreny. “I kind of tried to defend myself, and the next thing I knew, I felt these taps on his side of my head, like, you know, like he was trying to punch me.”
“I still didn’t know what was going on until I felt something trickle down my chest, and I realized it was blood,” he recalled.
At that point, a Winnebago County Sheriff’s deputy vehicle arrived.
“When he saw the cops, he just took off,” Fahreny added.
According to Winnebago County State’s Attorney, J. Hanley, a deputy pursued the assailant on foot and captured him after a brief battle in which the deputy incurred hand injuries.
Officials reported that the 20-minute rampage resulted in the murder of four people and the injuries of seven others. Hanley reported that the attacker’s truck ran over a postal worker, stabbed a mother and son to death at home, and beat a 15-year-old girl to death in her house with an aluminum softball bat.
According to Hanley, the attacker injured Lindsay Craig, Fahreny’s neighbor, by breaking into her home and attacking her with a knife both inside and outside.
During a news event on Thursday, Hanley praised Fahreny’s actions for stepping in to aid Craig “without hesitation” by positioning himself between her and her attacker.
Fahreny stated that he was simply looking to see how he could help.
“The cops were telling me, ‘Thank you, thank you for getting this guy,’ and I’m like, ‘I didn’t do anything; I was just, you know, I was just there to try to help,'” said Fahreny. “I had no idea what was going on.”
Hanley detained the defendant, Christian Soto, 22, and charged him with four counts of murder, seven counts of attempted murder, and two counts of house invasion with a deadly weapon. Chicago ABC station WLS reports that Soto’s public attorney has requested a rescheduling of his detention hearing for his initial court appearance on Thursday, leaving him in custody.
Following his arrest, Soto waived his Miranda rights and informed detectives he was high on marijuana, which he claimed was supplied to him by one of the killing victims and was laced with a powerful drug, Hanley stated.
However, Hanley claimed Soto was cognizant throughout the rampage and remembered details of each incident during his interview with authorities.
“I don’t have a real answer for that,” Hanley remarked of the likely motivation. “And I’m not sure we will.”
After the attack, Fahrney is recuperating at home. He reports that he has eight staples in the back of his head from the stabbing and a slash on his cheek, but he is otherwise “doing OK.”
“I can’t imagine what the other families are dealing with right now,” he told reporters. “I’m just happy that my son is safe, and my neighborhood is safe.”
