A Florida woman who was out walking her dog was repeatedly stabbed by a man and killed on Thursday afternoon in what the Martin County Sheriff’s Office is calling a vicious, unprovoked attack.
According to information provided by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to the South Wood Community in Stuart just before 4 p.m. Thursday when neighbors began to call and report that a strange man was reportedly knocking on doors and acting erratically.
A short time later, neighbors then reported that he was actively stabbing a woman.
“Our deputy, which was already en route to the suspicious person, pulled up and noticed that a civilian had run over to try and assist this female, who was now on the ground, and our suspect was on top of her actually actively stabbing her,” Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said in a video posted to Facebook.
Budensiek said that the civilian was trying to pull the suspect off the woman, who was described as a woman in her mid-70s, but was unsuccessful.
“He yelled for our deputy, our deputy rounded the corner, hopped out of his car, pulled his gun out, and immediately our suspect disengaged the female, who he was still actively stabbing when our deputy pulled up in his patrol car and proned himself out on the ground, throwing the knife down and giving up,” Budensiek said.
The suspect, who has since been identified as 25-year-old Kersten Francilus, was immediately taken into custody.
An off-duty deputy who lived in the area also responded to try and help the victim, but she was pronounced dead a short time later.
Budensiek said that Francilus had no known criminal history, and there was no connection between him and the victim. Budensiek also said that Francilus lived with his mother, his wife and a child, whom they interviewed after the attack.
“They said that the knife that he had here, which was a steak knife, came from their house,” Budensiek said.
According to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, Francilus was charged with murder in connection to the “vicious, unprovoked attack.”
