Suspect in Boise mass stabbing seeks to change name to ‘Eternal Love’

BOISE — Timmy Earl Kinner Jr., accused of stabbing nine people in Boise last June, wants to change his name to Eternal Love, according to court records obtained by the Idaho Statesman.

Kinner, who turned 31 last Friday, was granted a hearing on his petition at 1:30 p.m. March 19 before Judge Lynnette McHenry.

On the form that asked why he wanted to change his name, Kinner wrote: “because this is my God given right & the title I want to be known as & remembered by.”

In Idaho, name changes require a judge’s approval, and the state has strict laws about name changes meant to obscure association with crimes.

The mother of the 3-year-old refugee girl killed in the mass stabbing has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the property owners and managers of the apartment where the incident took place, along with stabbing suspect Timmy Kinner and the tenant who allegedly allowed Kinner to stay in her apartment.

According to a lawsuit filed Dec. 20, Bifituu Kadir is seeking a jury trial for defendants Northwest Real Estate Capital Corporation, a Boise nonprofit that specializes in affordable housing and owns the Wylie Street Station apartment complex; Tamarack Property Management Co., which manages the complex; Muhiba Muhic, a Tamarack employee who supervises the apartments; Kinner, the suspect in the stabbing; and Jane Doe 1, a Congolese refugee who reportedly allowed Kinner to stay in her apartment for an extended period.

The suit alleges that Tamarack and Northwest Real Estate “knew or should have known” that Kinner was on the property in spite of tenant-only restrictions and that by allowing him to stay there, the companies failed to protect Ruya.

“[Bifituu Kadir] had fled horror in Ethiopia and Syria to find safety in America and Boise, Idaho, only to experience violence all over again, losing her only child to a violent stabbing,” the lawsuit said.

The suit offers details about the stabbing and Kinner’s presence at the Wylie Street apartments leading up to the incident. Kinner, a Tennessean who came to Boise by way of Utah, was a transient with a long rap sheet. According to the lawsuit, the unidentified Jane Doe allowed Kinner to stay in her unit without the landlord’s consent. Kinner then requested a unit of his own, the suit alleges, but was rejected by the landlord.

“Defendant Timmy Earl Kinner Jr. was asked to vacate Wylie Street Station during the last week of June 2018,” the lawsuit said. “Subsequently, Jane Doe 1 left Boise for a short vacation. … Kinner did not vacate Wylie Street Station, and was seen [there] on June 29 and 30, despite being told to leave.”

Kinner allegedly spent the entire day leading up to the stabbing on the Wylie Street Station property.

In the suit, Kadir recalled sitting on her back porch when a child entered her apartment, screaming. When Kadir went to the front yard, she said she saw Kinner “stabbing an adult refugee male several times around his head and shoulders.” Initially, Kadir assumed the incident was a scuffle between the two men. She said she screamed at Kinner to stop, prompting him to run after her “with his knife in hand.”

Kadir fled into her home. That’s when she said she saw Ruya lying face down and bleeding. Kadir said she picked up the toddler, covered Ruya with her dress to stanch the bleeding, and ran from Kinner in search of help.

“[Bifituu] heard some struggling breathing from her daughter, then none,” the lawsuit said.

The mother said she got into the car of a passing refugee woman from Somalia but soon became frustrated with traffic. “She eventually got out of the car and walked her daughter towards the hospital with her dress pulled up to cover her daughter,” the suit said.

At the hospital, Ruya was life-flighted to Salt Lake City. She died there on July 2.

According to the lawsuit, Kadir has been wracked with grief and terror since the stabbing.

“She has begged her husband many nights to take her to the burial place so that she could dig up the body of her daughter and make sure she was really deceased,” the lawsuit said. “She visits the grave of her daughter on average two times a day so that she can ‘put her to sleep’ daily.”

Kadir still lives at the Wylie Street apartments. According to court documents, she feels nervous and unsafe there and feels anxious in the presence of people who resemble Kinner.

The suit claims negligence on the part of the property owner and managers, as well as Jane Doe. It also accuses Kinner of assault and inflicting emotional distress.

Kinner is charged with first-degree murder in Ruya’s death and faces numerous other charges, including eight counts of aggravated assault. Nine people, six of them children, were stabbed with a knife on June 30; four had life-threatening injuries, and of them, Ruya later died.