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Police in Sacramento, California, Search for Mass Slaying Suspect

Aired August 20, 2001 - 15:31   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: This is Joie Chen in the CNN newsroom with a late-breaking news story in to us at CNN. "The Associated Press," as we have been reporting, is reporting the police in Sacramento, California, are looking for a man suspected of killing a woman by stabbing her to death and then driving on to a day care center and shooting four other people.

That is all the information we have right now.

We want to move quickly to our affiliate KCRA, which is in Sacramento, for the latest they're getting. Let's listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

TOM DUHAIN, KCRA REPORTER: ... where they found four people involved in what appears to a stabbing or a trauma death. We have three deaths here.

Standing by with me is Sgt. Jamie Lewis, Sacramento Sheriff's Department. What have you found at this scene?

SGT. JAMES LEWIS, SACRAMENTO SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: Here we have two victims inside the house -- two elderly victims, a male and a female. We also an infant -- it appears to be a male infant -- on the front porch of the house here. We have transported a 7-year-old female to the SU Davis medical center; she is in critical condition. We also, I just learned, are in the process of looking for a 2-year- old that's still outstanding. We are trying to the account for all of the family members that have bee involved here, and are still missing a 2-year-old.

DUHAIN: So these appear to be members of the same family, and you do have a suspect -- or at least someone you want to speak with at this point.

LEWIS: Absolutely. We are looking for a 27-year-old man we believe is the husband of the first victim in North Highlands.

DUHAIN: Let's go ahead and show that picture, and we will get a shot of that. What do you know about this person?

LEWIS: He's 27-year-old Nikolay Soltys. He is the outstanding member. He was seen in a Nissan Altima, a silver Nissan Altima, in both locations, both in North Islands here and Rancho Cordova. He is considered the suspect at this time; he is considered armed and dangerous. We have not positively identified him as the suspect, but we have enough information to suggest that he may be dangerous and the one responsible for all the deaths.

DUHAIN: Do you have any leads yet on his location?

LEWIS: We don't. And that's something we are looking for the public's help in. Certainly, if anybody sees him, we don't want them to approach him, but we do want to find him as quickly as possible.

Of serious concern too is the fact that we have just learned that there is a 2-year-old still outstanding. So if anybody has any information, we need them to get hold of the Sheriff's Department as quickly as possible.

DUHAIN: Did you have witnesses here at scene? I know you had a 911 call from here. Did anybody see what happened?

LEWIS: We don't know if they saw what happened specifically. We are still in the process of conducting a canvass. We do have witnesses who saw the car and saw him in the area. So that's something that is linking the two scenes together.

Again, we have total of four victim dead here -- three here, one at address in North Highlands -- and they're all related family of some sort. We believe that his wife is a victim there in North Highlands, and we have family members here that are victims.

DUHAIN: We have a couple of people coming up who live in the area. There seems to be a number of Russian immigrant families here. Do we know anything about the family?

LEWIS: We do know that they are Russian or something like that. There has been somewhat of a communication gap that we are in the process of trying to work out.

DUHAIN: And you are still trying to determine the nature of the trauma that took their lives.

LEWIS: Right. We don't believe that it's gunshot, but we are not sure what it is. We are not saying stabbing or otherwise until we know for sure.

DUHAIN: Obviously, you have been near the crime scene. It must be pretty sad, pretty ugly.

LEWIS: It's absolutely tragic. These are the type of cases that we least like to get involved in. We want to get this guy off the streets as quickly as possible.

We are in the process of trying to account for all family members, to make sure that we don't have a string of these. He's already killed four people, possibly five. We want to eliminate the possibility that we have more victims. DUHAIN: It's a little early to ask, but I will ask a final question: Do we know anything about this man's background, any previous activity?

LEWIS: We know very little quite about him, quite frankly.

DUHAIN: Thank you, Sgt. Jamie Lewis, giving us the details here.

Once again, we are on the 10000 block of Mill Station Road, not far from Netherfield Road and Mill Station. This entire neighborhood has now been consumed with this activity. There are many people who live in the area rushing up, trying to find out what happened, concerned about the safety of their own loved ones.

At this moment, we have a 7-year-old girl barely clinging to life, who's been LifeFlighted to the med center. When she was found here, her condition was grave. We have an infant and two other elderly adults who were found killed inside the home. And also we have a woman killed by a stabbing in North Highlands.

That is the very latest we have here. We will get back with you if we have any additional information, especially regarding the suspect in this case.

CHEN: All right, CNN following up on coverage from our affiliate KCRA in Sacramento, California.

If you are just joining us, here's the information, as we understand it, from KCRA and their reporter talking with a local investigator on the scene. There was something of a rampage situation in Sacramento. Already, they have confirmed four deaths, all of those four people being family members of one family, but in two different locations, two separate homes. Apparently, one woman was the wife of the man who is currently being pursued as a suspect. Three other people were killed at the second location; two of them were elderly, and a baby boy was killed. A 7-year-old girl is in now critical condition, and there is a 2-year-old who is missing.

Of course, investigators are very greatly concerned about that. They do have a suspect, somebody they are pursuing, because of their concerns that he was seen at both locations. He is a 27-year-old man who they believe was married to the woman who was found dead at the first location.

They also noted that they seem to have communication difficulties. They believe some of the people involved in this particular community are Russian immigrants. There seems to be something of a language and a communication barrier that they are having.

Again, they are continuing to pursue the leads on this one 27- year-old man they have named as Nikolay Soltys, a 27-year-old man in Sacramento area. CNN is saying he was in a Nissan Altima, and they are pursuing any leads they can to try to locate him.

Again, this is late information coming to us. We were just watching KCRA, which is one of our affiliates in the Sacramento area, following up on this story and trying to get the late information they have. But they already know that there are four people who have been killed. One young girl, a 7-year-old girl is in critical condition, and a 2-year-old child. Still at large is the person they suspect in the killings.

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