A brake-check on the Blue Route led to a road-rage attack and stabbing, police say
Samuel Marquez was so upset that another driver brake-checked him, police say, he punched that man multiple times and stabbed him with a box cutter.
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.
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 box cutter when he got out of the vehicle, authorities said.
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 vehicles 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 affidavit said.
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 told authorities that he looked down, saw blood, and realized Marquez had stabbed him.
Medics arrived and took the man to Lankenau Medical Center, where he was treated for his stab wound.
Marquez and the other cars’ drivers fled. 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, ran away and was later arrested while sitting on a park bench at Memorial Park in Bryn Mawr. He had a silver box cutter in his pocket.
In 2023, Upper Chichester police said that Marquez was wanted in connection with a 2022 armed robbery at a convenience store in the township.
Marquez is scheduled to appear before a district judge for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 22.
Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.
