Left: Spencer Ross Pearson allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend Madison Schemitz in a targeted attack (via St. Johns County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office). Right: Madison Schemitz (via GoFundMe).
When a teenager started stabbing his ex-girlfriend in a restaurant parking lot, two men — total strangers — along with the girl’s mother jumped into action to save her, according to witnesses and local authorities.
Deputies in St. John’s County, Florida, said the suspect, Spencer Ross Pearson, 18, launched a “targeted attack” against Madison Schemitz, 17, on Saturday afternoon. An affidavit obtained by Law&Crime said Pearson then “immediately began ‘steadily’ cutting his own throat in an effort to kill himself.”
Schemitz, a star player for the Ponte Vedra High School softball team, survived the attack, but with dire injuries: she is currently paralyzed from damage to her spinal cord.
Her family holds out hope that she will recover.
“Madison is a fighter, you know,” her sister Tatiana Cruceta told First Coast News. “She’s going to make it through this, and I know she is going to walk out of this hospital.”
“Madison’s the sweetest person you’ll ever meet, she’s always smiling, always,” Cruceta also. “So as soon as I answered the phone — we all call her ‘Sass,’ that’s her nickname — so I said ‘how you doin, Sass, how you feelin?’ And she goes ‘Oh just dandy.’ So she was cracking jokes and trying to be strong.”
Documents stated Pearson had started harassing and following his ex in April.
“I don’t know all the details, but I do know that there were some issues in the past after they had broken up, where he was threatening her safety,” Cruceta said. “My mother was looking to get a restraining order against him so this was definitely premeditated. This was definitely something that he had planned.”
Schemitz and her mom, Jacki Rogé, had been eating at the Mr. Chubby’s Wings restaurant on Saturday afternoon with friends. Mother and daughter spotted Pearson.
“They were like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to go,”” one of their friends, Casey Estep, told First Coast News.
They asked for the check and tried to leave quietly, but Pearson ran at Schemitz and Rogé in the parking lot, she said.
“In a sworn recorded interview one of the victims stated the defendant held the juvenile victim with one arm and stabbed her approximately fifteen times,” the affidavit stated.
Rogé stepped in to save her daughter.
“She did what any mother would and put herself in harm’s way,” Estep said.
Two men who witnessed the alleged attack also intervened. Kennedy Armstrong told WJXT that he and his friend, Jimmy Stepp, encountered a man “pounding” on a woman’s chest, though he did not know if the attacker had a knife or was just using a fist.
“I hit the kid as hard as I could,” he said.
He told First Coast News that it was all a blur when he and Stepp engaged with the assailant. It was only after the fact that he realized he also got hurt. Injuries to his right hand included a ruptured artery and ligaments.
Kennedy Armstrong, pictured here, and Jimmy Stepp are credited with intervening when Spencer Ross Pearson brutally stabbed ex-girlfriend Madison Schemitz. (Screenshot: WJXT)
Stepp called his friend “the hero in this whole thing,” but Armstrong credited Rogé with saving her daughter’s life.
“Kudos to the mom,” Armstrong said Sunday. “I think she’s the real reason that girl is still alive.”
Rogé had surgery Monday for a ruptured artery in her hand, Cruceta reportedly said. An affidavit obtained by Law&Crime stated that Pearson stabbed her in the forehead and leg.
Pearson was taken to a hospital as well.
“The complainants stated the Defendant immediately began steadily cutting his own throat in an effort to kill himself,” deputies said in the affidavit. Pearson allegedly told witnesses he was trying to kill himself.
Deputies wrote on Facebook that if Pearson survives his self-inflicted injuries, he will face charges including attempted murder.
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Supporters of Schemitz’s mother and father have started separate GoFundMe campaigns.
There is also one for Armstrong, although his mother reportedly said that while they appreciate the gesture, insurance will cover treatment and they do not need the money.
Read the affidavit, below.
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