PONTE VEDRA, Fla. — UPDATE 6/4: The suspect of the stabbing has been identified as Spenser Ross Pearson, 18. According to St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office this incident was a targeted attack by Pearson who was known to the primary victim.
The two other victims were injured when they intervened to render aid to the primary victim.
Pearson, the suspect, if he survives the self inflicted injury, he will be charged with multiple felony charges including attempted felony murder.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s office is investigating a triple stabbing outside a restaurant in Ponte Vedra Beach, a suspect also suffered stab wounds but it’s unclear if they were self inflicted or happened in the course of the attack when the victims may have fought back.
A witness told Action News Jax that his friend bolted into action and tackled a man who was attacking two women.
“All the credit to Kennedy Armstrong, that kid is an absolute hero,” James Stepp said.
READ: Stabbing incident in Ponte Vedra leaves four injured; Deputy investigation underway
Stepp said he and Armstrong showed up to get some food and heard screaming, they went to check out what was going on and saw a violent interaction, saying a man was stabbing two women.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
“Right when we got out of the car, we heard a woman screaming and so we rushed over to see what the situation was,” he said. “The one guy was mounted over the other woman, and it was from the backside, so my buddy tackled him off, got him off of them.”
A large section of the parking lot was roped off with crime scene tape and evidence markers were next to food and clothing items.
“It was very physical, we had known at that point something not so cool was going on,” he said. “It looked like the mother got slashed across the forehead or had maybe taken another wound, there was a lot of blood and it looked like the one lady, the younger one, had gotten stabbed in the chest.”
Four people were taken to the hospital and his friend Kennedy was one of them.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
“The knife caught his hand maybe a couple of tendons and a couple of arteries but he’s being worked on right now,” he said.
Stepp said from there he called 911 and also tried to help get the knife away.
“Right when the ladies looked at me and said called 911, I immediately did and called dispatch to give them all the information,” Stepp said. “I saw some things nobody ever wants to see it’s a terrible situation.”
Stepp said the person who was attacking those women harmed himself as well. What led up to the incident is unclear and the Sheriff’s office said there are no outstanding suspects.
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
