A Florida high school softball star and her mother were brutally stabbed by the teenager’s ex-boyfriend as they were leaving a restaurant to avoid him, authorities said.
The stabbing, which the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office described as a “targeted attack,” occurred Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of a Mr. Chubby’s Wings restaurant in Ponte Vedra Beach.
The teenager, identified by her family as Madison Schemitz, was eating at the restaurant with her mother, Jacki Roge, and friends when they saw the ex-boyfriend seated nearby, according to an arrest affidavit.
Roge was in the process of obtaining a restraining order against her daughter's ex, Spencer Ross Pearson, NBC affiliate WTLV of Jacksonville reported, quoting a relative. In April, he began to “follow and harass” the girl, the affidavit said.
Schemitz, 17, and her mother left the restaurant to avoid contact with Pearson, 18, deputies said. Seconds later, he was seen "charging towards the juvenile victim and her mother as they walked toward their vehicle," the affidavit said.
Pearson held Schemitz with one arm and “stabbed her approximately 15 times,” one of the victims told investigators, according to the document.
Her mother tried to intervene, and Pearson stabbed her in the forehead and a leg, the affidavit said. He also stabbed a bystander who ran to help Schemitz and her mother, according to the document.
The bystander was able to “dislodge” Pearson, who began "cutting his own throat" and told witnesses he was trying to kill himself, the affidavit said.
The victims and the suspect were hospitalized, Schemitz with “life-threatening injuries,” according to the document.
A page created to raise money for the family’s medical bills described Schemitz as a rising senior at Ponte Vedra High School, a star athlete and a sister to five siblings.
She was described as being in critical condition at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville and has a “long road to recovery,” according to the fundraiser.
“Madison has 2 chest tubes and a spinal cord injury but she’s a fighter, just please continue praying for her,” Roge said in an update.
"I am about to go into surgery, my muscles were severed from the bone on my hand," she added.
The bystander's status was unknown Tuesday.
Pearson was charged with two counts of attempted premeditated murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
He was served an arrest warrant in the hospital, where he remained Tuesday. He was ordered not to have contact with the victims or to hold any firearms, said the warrant, which noted he must wear a GPS monitor.
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