An 18-year-old recent high school graduate near Jacksonville, Florida repeatedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend and then attempted to cut his own throat, police said on Monday.
Madison Schemitz, a 17-year-old high school softball star, was eating lunch with her mother Jacki Rogé and a friend at a restaurant on Saturday when they spotted Spencer Pearson, Ms Schemitz’s former boyfriend, standing nearby.
According to First Coast News, the trio had reason to fear Mr Pearson: since Ms Schemitz had broken up with him, he’d threatened her with violence to the point that her mother was in the process of obtaining a restraining order against him.
When Mr Pearson appeared at the restaurant, the group paid their bill and began walking out toward their car in an effort to get away from the former high school football player. Before they could get to their car, however, Mr Pearson intercepted them and allegedly began stabbing both Ms Schemitz and her mother.
It wasn’t until a bystander, Kennedy Armstrong, 23, heard screaming and intervened that the stabbing of Ms Schemitz and her mother stopped. Mr Pearson then began attacking Mr Armstrong, reportedly stabbing him in the arm and severing multiple tendons.
Mr Pearson finally then stabbed himself in the throat in an attempt to die by suicide.
He and Ms Schmetiz are now both in critical condition, with the the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office reportedly prepared to charge Pearson with attempted murder if he survives his self-inflicted wound.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help cover Ms Schemitz’s substantial medical expenses. She has already undergone multiple surgeries since being hospitalised following the attack. The GoFundMe has already raised in excess of $60,000.
In an update posted the page, Ms Rogé provided an update on her progress and that of her daughter.
“I am about to go into surgery, my muscles were severed from the bone on my hand,” the update reads. “Madison has 2 chest tubes and a spinal cord injury but she’s a fighter, just please continue praying for her.”
