Ex-boyfriend, 18, repeatedly stabs star Florida high school softball player, 17, and her mother outside a busy restaurant before cutting his own throat
- Madison Schemitz, 17, a rising senior at Ponte Vedra High School, was having lunch on Saturday with her mother and a friend when her ex was spotted lurking
- The group, feeling threatened by Spencer Pearson, 18, a recent graduate, decided to leave: outside the restaurant Pearson attacked them all
- He stabbed Schemitz and her mother: a passerby, Kennedy Armstrong, 23, pulled Pearson off and Pearson cut his throat – all four were hospitalized
Four people are in hospital after the ex-boyfriend of a high school softball star stabbed her and her mother in a frenzied broad-daylight attack in front of a restaurant, before attacking a passer-by who dragged him off her, and then cutting his own throat.
Madison Schemitz, a 17-year-old student at Ponte Vedra High School, was having lunch on Saturday in the town with her mother Jackie Roge and a friend.
The group spotted Schemitz’s ex-boyfriend, 18-year-old Spencer Pearson, a recent graduate of the school and a former football player.
Schemitz had recently broken up with him, and he had threatened her with violence.
Madison Schemitz, 17, is pictured with her then-boyfriend Spencer Pearson, 18. On Saturday he attacked her, her mother, and a person who tried to save the women
Pearson posted gushing tributes to Schemitz on his social media
Pearson was a high school football star, who recently graduated
The group, worried, left the restaurant in a hurry – but on leaving, they were confronted by Pearson.
He stabbed Schmeitz and her mother outside Mr. Chubby’s Wings on Valley Circle, and their screams alerted Kennedy Armstrong, 23.
Armstrong told News4Jax said he saw a man on top of a woman on the sidewalk ‘pounding down on her chest’.
He said he could not see if the man had a knife or was just using his fist, but he ran to the scene and knocked the man off the woman.
Pearson then turned on Armstrong, severing an artery in his arm.
The teenager then slashed his own throat in a suicide attempt.
All four were taken to hospital.
Jackie Roge, the mother of Madison Schmeitz, was seriously injured in Saturday’s attack
Schmeitz was a star of the softball team at Ponte Vedra High School, in a suburb of Jacksonville
Schmeitz suffered deep cuts to her spine and required multiple surgeries.
Her mother on Monday wrote on their GoFundMe page: ‘I am about to go into surgery, my muscles were severed from the bone on my hand.
‘Madison has 2 chest tubes and a spinal cord injury but she’s a fighter, just please continue praying for her.’
Armstrong requires surgery to reconnect nerves and an artery, and attempt to repair some scarring.
Pearson remains in critical condition: if he survives, will face multiple felonies, including attempted murder.
