River Stabbing Suspect Claims 'Self Defense,' Reacts to Victim's Death In Interrogation Video

The incident went down at Apple River in August 2022, with victims and prosecutors claiming 54-year-old Nicolae Miu pulled a knife on a group during a confrontation on the water, which was captured on video. The defense, meanwhile, says Miu was acting in self-defense after being surrounded and taunted by the "drunk" group.

Isaac Schuman, 17, was killed, while Ryhley Mattison, A.J. Martin, Dante Carlson and Tony Carlson were all injured. Miu faces one charge of first-degree intentional homicide for Schuman's death, as well as four counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide for the injured parties; he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Miu's trial continued on Tuesday, with Lt. Brandi Hart of the St. Croix County Sheriff's Office taking the stand to open up about her interview with the suspect after the incident. The interview was shown in full to the court -- which you can watch below:

At the very top of the interview, Miu said he was very thirsty as he had been "on the river drinking beer all day"; he was also concerned about his wife, who Hart assured him was okay.

"I have bigger dreams, now shattered," he said, after telling Hart about his profession, before getting into the altercation himself. "But anyway, I don't want to talk about that right now. I don't know exactly what happened. How bad is it?"

"All I can say, it was self defense. Self defense," he then told her. "There were a lot of people, they came onto me. Self defense, they produced two weapons, one I took from them. That's the only thing I can tell. They hit me, they were on top of me and I don't remember anything after that."

According to Miu, he approached the group to ask about his friend's lost phone, wondering if they had seen it. He had a snorkel at the time, he said, because he was searching for the phone under the water.

At the time of the interview, it doesn't appear he knows much of the confrontation was caught on video, which can be watched below.

"They started calling me names, they got off their tubes, they came at me, they're calling me all kinds of names, insulting me for being in the water with a snorkel. I said, 'All I want guys, did you find a phone?' They had found something. But they wouldn't talk to me about what they found," Miu told cops. "They came to me, they grabbed my snorkel and threw it in the water. I went after it and another group of mostly girls came over from the other side, yelling at me and calling me child molester."

"That's how it all started, they kept calling me a child molester out of the blue and that they wanted to beat me up, because they said I'm a child molester," he continued.

"They took my snorkel away, threw it in the water. They grabbed my pants, one wanted to pull my pants down and I grabbed onto him and I don't know who that kid was, but he produced, he had a knife on him," said Miu. "And then there was another knife, it looked like a kitchen knife and I don't know what happened to either one of them. When the kid attacked me, I took it from him, the smaller knife."

"I feared for my life. They started hitting me and pointed a knife at me. Another kid pointed a knife. I thought that was it for me," he said, adding that he "luckily" was able to take one of the knives.

Even Miu's defense admitted the man was giving an "inaccurate" and "incorrect" account of how he obtained the knife used in the fight. Miu, however, said he only had his knife on him earlier in the day, using it to cut string off his group's tubes, but couldn't recall what he'd done with it after that. On the stand, Miu later admitted to having his own knife in his hand at the time of the attack.

Speaking with Hart, Miu said he couldn't remember whether the knife made contact with anyone.

"It was so close. I took his hand, bent it and I poked him with his own hand, I took it from his hand and I swing it like this. I don't know what hit," he said. "I know I took the knife from one of the kids. The other one, I don't know what happened to. As soon as this happened, I started running across to my group. I didn't want to tell them anything."

"I don't remember why they attacked me. I don't know why they took my snorkel away. I don't know why one of them wanted to pull my pants down. I don't know why they were being so mean," he said of the group. "I just don't know. Why did they want to scare me with a knife? I don't know why they're scaring people on the river, a family-oriented river, with knives."

He continued to say he "feared for" his life and was "extremely shocked" by the confrontation, describing the group as "circling" him. He told Hart he was still "fearful" they would retaliate against his wife following his arrest, before saying, "they were attacking me from all directions. I truly feared for my life."

Eventually, Hart informed him that four people were injured and one person died.

"Oh my god. Oh no," said Miu, with his head in his hands, adding, "Was that because they fought each other? Oh my god. Oh my god. My whole life is down the tubes." He later insisted he was "glad" he "took that kid's knife," telling Hart, "He would have stabbed me. He was not there to scare me, he was there to harm me. I'm sorry for how it ended up."

The suspect also told Hart they should do blood alcohol tests on the other group, before saying he felt the river had turned into a "sewer." Miu said he was "as law abiding citizen as they come," declaring, "I didn't touch those kids," before the interview ended with him submitting to buccal swab.