news

High school softball player stabbed 15 times by her ex while leaving a Florida restaurant, officials say

The victim, Madison Schemitz, 17, is a rising senior at Ponte Vedra High School. Her mother and a bystander were stabbed after trying to intervene.

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, described by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office as a “targeted attack,” occurred Saturday afternoon in the the parking lot of a Mr. Chubby’s Wings restaurant in Ponte Vedra Beach.

The teenager, identified by the 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, according to NBC affiliate WLTV of Jacksonville, 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, according to deputies. 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.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

Contact Us