The near-fatal stabbing that took place on an entrance ramp to the Blue Route in Upper Merion on Saturday occurred when a Kensington man intentionally rear-ended another driver and then used two other vehicles he was traveling with to box the man in on an exit ramp, officials said Wednesday.
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And while the other driver was trapped, Samuel Marquez, 40, got out of the U-Haul truck he was driving, punched the man in the face multiple times, and eventually stabbed him in the abdomen with a boxcutter when he got out of the vehicle.
The attack came because Marquez was upset that the man brake-checked him for driving too closely behind him, police said.
Marquez has been charged with aggravated assault, terroristic threats and related crimes. He remained in custody Wednesday, having been denied bail. It was unclear if he had an attorney.
The U-Haul Marquez was driving was part of a caravan of vehicles, including a Toyota Sienna minivan and an Acura SUV, whose drivers were heading to Philadelphia to help Marquez move to the city from Reading, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
While driving on I-76 in Upper Merion, the minivan, driven by Marquez’s girlfriend, had engine trouble, and she had to pull over. When the car was repaired, and the group attempted to merge back onto the highway, they cut closely in front of a BMW, the affidavit said.
The driver of the BMW told police he honked his horn, and drove around the group. Moments later, the U-Haul had sped up behind him, driving aggressively, and was practically touching his bumper, according to the affidavit.
The man said he brake-checked the truck to get it to back off, and then took the exit onto a ramp connecting the highway with the Blue Route. As he took the exit, the U-Haul intentionally rammed his vehicle, while the minivan and SUV drove past and stopped in front of him, boxing him in, the affidavit said.
The impact from the collision with the U-Haul spun his car, and pushed it about 20 feet, he told police. Afterward, Marquez and another man ran up to this open window and began punching him in the face
The driver heard Marquez tell the other man that he was “going to grab his knife,” the affidavit said.
The driver ran onto the median of the Blue Route, and then back toward the U-Haul, to photograph its license plate. Marquez’s girlfriend got out of her minivan and prevented him from taking a picture of her van’s license plate.
As the man argued with the woman, he felt a sharp pain in his side, the affidavit said. He looked down, saw blood, and realized Marquez had stabbed him.
Medics arrived at took the man to Lankenau Hospital, where he was treated for his stab wound.
Meanwhile, Marquez and the other cars’ drivers fled the scene. Villanova University’s campus was briefly under a lockdown as police searched for the stabbing suspect. Lower Merion Police located the U-Haul at a Sunoco gas station not long after and took its passenger into custody.
Marquez, meanwhile, fled on foot and was later arrested while sitting on a park bench at Memorial Park in Bryn Mawr. He had a silver box-cutter knife in his pocket.
Marquez is scheduled to appear before a district judge for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 22.