DUNNELLON, Fla. – The Marion County Sheriff’s Office is crediting a bulletproof vest with saving a deputy’s life after he was ambushed and repeatedly stabbed.
Around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Deputy Robert Fitch responded to the 11775 NW 10th Place area in Dunnellon for a suspicious person call.
The moment Fitch stepped out of his vehicle, Heriberto Medina Marquez, 38, lunged at him with a knife, knocked him to the ground, and stabbed him multiple times in the chest, deputies said in a news release.
Heriberto Medina Marquez (Marion County Sheriff’s Office)
At one point, Fitch can be heard in the body camera video saying, “He had something in his hand. I can’t confirm if it was a knife, but I was on the ground, and he was steady, hitting my chest, but my vest got it.”
Another deputy arrived on scene as Medina Marquez emerged from the woods nearby, where he had fled after the attack. Deputies took him into custody without further incident. Investigators later recovered two folding knives at the scene, both with suspected fresh blood on them, the sheriff’s office said.
“I should have killed you, you know that, right?” Medina Marquez told deputies after being taken into custody.
Medina Marquez was booked into the Marion County Jail on charges of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, providing a false name to law enforcement, and resisting without violence. He is being held without bond.
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