The crazed ex-boyfriend of a popular Florida high school softball star repeatedly stabbed his former flame before cutting his own throat in a desperate suicide bid, cops said.
The grisly, broad-daylight assault in posh Ponte Vedra Beach near Jacksonville was interrupted only after a courageous good Samaritan spotted the frenzied attack and intervened, according to police.
Madison Schemitz, 17, a rising senior at Ponte Vedra High School, was eating at a restaurant Saturday with her mother, Jackie Roge, and friend Casey Estep when they spotted Spencer Pearson, a recent graduate of the school and a former football player.
Estep told local reporters that Schemitz had recently broken up with the 18-year-old and that he had since threatened her with violence.
Pearson’s menacing pledges grew so unnerving that Schemitz’s mother was in the process of obtaining a restraining order against him for her daughter’s safety.
“They were like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to go,'” Estep told First Coast News of their startled reaction to Pearson’s sudden appearance.
The party quickly paid their check and attempted to walk to their vehicle, but Pearson intercepted them and began stabbing both Schemitz and her mother.
Bystander Kennedy Armstrong, 23, was sitting in a parked car nearby when he suddenly heard loud screams.
He turned toward the sound and saw Pearson repeatedly stabbing Schemitz while straddling her on the ground.
Armstrong immediately darted toward Pearson and knocked him off the screaming and bloodied victim.
“You see two girls in trouble getting attacked by a guy, I would hope most people would do the same,” Armstrong told First Coast News. “Kudos to the mom. I think she’s the real reason that girl is still alive.”
Pearson then attacked Armstrong, stabbing him in the arm and severing several tendons.
The assault concluded when Pearson cut his own throat in an attempt to kill himself.
All four participants were rushed to a local hospital, with Schemitz suffering deep cuts to her spine and experiencing temporary paralysis.
She has already undergone several surgeries and remains in critical condition.
A pair of GoFundMe accounts have already raised more than $80,000 to help Schemitz and her family offset incoming medical costs and other expenses.
“She is a sister to five siblings and she will have a long road to recovery as she is in critical condition at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville,” one of the accounts said of Schemitz.
Pearson also remains in critical condition after suffering the severe self-inflicted cut to the neck.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office said it intends to charge Pearson with attempted murder should he survive.
The investigation into the case is ongoing.
