Raul De La Heria, attorney for Damian Marquez, speaks about the stabbing in Fort Lauderdale that left Marquez hospitalized for days.
An Amazon delivery driver who was brutally stabbed and robbed while working in a Fort Lauderdale neighborhood earlier this month came within millimeters of possibly losing his life, his attorney said.
Damian Marquez was in the 1100 block of Northwest 10th Terrace back on the night of Dec. 7 when the attack happened.
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His attorney, Raul De La Heria, told NBC6 that Marquez was delivering packages when he heard a noise that sounded like air coming out and realized a tire was flat.
"Apparently the individual that attacked him slashed the tire to disable the truck and then attacked him," De La Heria said.
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The robber asked Marquez for the keys to the truck and demanded he hand over personal items, but before Marquez could comply he was Tasered, beaten and stabbed seven times by the attacker, De La Heria said.
"He missed his liver by millimeters, he had a collapsed lung, he stabbed him in the shoulder in the front side and the back side, in his leg, his thigh, two stabbings in the abdomen, in the chest area, which collapsed one of his lungs," De La Heria said.
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Fort Lauderdale Police said the suspect took one of the driver's personal items and fled.
Surveillance footage from a nearby home showed Marquez knocking on a door for help after he'd been stabbed.
The video shows the driver lift his shirt, looking at the wound, then running off when nobody answered the door.
He ended up at a nearby convenience store where the employees immediately gave him assistance. Another surveillance video showed Fort Lauderdale officers helping the driver inside the store after he'd been stabbed.
"He was able to make it to that convenience store that immediately called 911 and saved his life," De La Heria said. "He not only feels lucky to be alive, he is lucky to be alive, because one of the knife wounds came very close to the liver."
Police later arrested the suspect, 33-year-old Curtis Gardner, who's charged with felony attempted murder, armed carjacking, and burglary with battery.
De La Heria said Marquez, who works for an Amazon subcontractor, was released from the hospital about four days after the attack, but is still recovering.
"Physically he's not doing well," De La Heria said. "You can't only concentrate just on the stabbing wounds, there's also he was hit, he was kicked, he woke up with pain all over his body."
