An Episcopal Church priest in Florida has opened up about an incident last month in which a woman stabbed him in the chest, stating that it would have been "a really weird way to die."
The Rev. Matthew Marino, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in St. Augustine, was stabbed in the chest on Oct. 23 while outside of a café with a friend. He was badly wounded as a result.
In an interview with the Jacksonville-based First Coast News earlier this month, Marino shared his experience, noting that it began with a social outing at Coffee House Realty Café.
Marino was with a friend outside the establishment, waiting for it to open, when a woman walked toward him and said, "I have problems." When he offered to listen to her issues, she stabbed him in the chest with a knife.
"I just looked down and said, 'Hey, you just stabbed me,'" he said. "And, you know, put my hand there to make sure, like, yeah, there's actually a hole there. And then she kind of got this look on her face like, 'And now I'm going to finish the job.'"
Marino initially thought that he was unharmed, but then he recalled coughing up some blood shortly after she had stabbed him, and then he "could feel blood coming down my leg."
"I'm losing blood pretty fast," Marino said. "I've got to get on the ground, or I'm going to pass out and then have a hematoma and really have a problem."
As Marino got on the ground on his side, he told his friend to keep the knife-wielding woman away from him. He then recalled looking up at the sky and seeing how gray it was.
"I remember sitting there thinking, 'This is a really, really weird way to die.' I mean, I have a lot of important meetings today," he said, laughing at the thought of focusing on meetings as he was bleeding profusely.
"Then I remember thinking, I just don't want to go like this. This seems senseless and random and 'not today, Lord.' And I felt like the Lord said, 'hmm, OK.'"
The woman stabbed Marino below his left collarbone, a blow that punctured his lung.
He was taken to a hospital for treatment and was released on Oct. 29, according to Episcopal News Service.
Shortly after the stabbing, 22-year-old Arieana R. Gibbs was arrested through efforts of the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office and the St. Augustine Police Department, according to a statement by the former.
"Gibbs was arrested and charged with 2nd degree attempted homicide, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and felony simple battery," stated St. Johns County authorities.
At her arraignment on Nov. 7, Gibbs pleaded not guilty.
Late last month, a St. Johns County judge denied bond for Gibbs, believing that the charges she was facing showed that she was too much of a potential danger to let go pending trial.
"It's not something you would imagine at all," says fellow Trinity Church priest Father Caleb Jones told Action News Jax. "It was a completely random attack. It was someone we've never known or seen in our services."
