A hatchet-wielding suspect nearly decapitated 32-year-old Jacob Couch at a Tuscon, Arizona, bus stop earlier this month while he was traveling with his wife back home to their native Alabama.
The alleged assailant – 25-year-old Daniel Michael – was ordered held on a $1 million cash bond in Pima County on felony assault charges in the seemingly random crime. He awaits another court hearing at the end of the month.
Couch, meanwhile, has been hospitalized on life support for the past two weeks since the April 5 attack, and officials have said he is not expected to survive his injuries.
He and his wife, Kristen Couch, were in California mourning the loss of their stillborn son a year ago. The couple decided to travel cross-country back to their hometown of Arab, Alabama, when their lives were upended in Tucson.
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The attack happened in broad daylight at 10 a.m. about two miles from the University of Arizona campus and just blocks away from Tucson police headquarters.
“He’s got the biggest heart that I believe I’ve ever met,” Couch’s younger brother, Luke Couch, told Fox News Digital. “And I really do mean that. He was just a caring person. He loved his family. He was really big about his family.”
Authorities have released few details about the potential motive for the crime. Michael’s lawyer in the initial bond hearing claimed “self-defense” couldn’t be ruled out in asking the judge for a lesser bond.
The victim’s brother, however, told Fox News Digital that detectives said they determined “there is no evidence to support any claims of self-defense.”
“And they said that he was going to be trying to grasp straws, grasp anything. I mean, my brother was attacked from behind while he was bent over. That is not self-defense,” Luke Couch said.
“I want to make sure this man never does this again and no other family has to go through what my family has went through. To see my brother lying in a hospital bed and unable to move, unable to do anything, it hurts so bad to know that I wasn’t able to be there to protect him because he would have done it for me in a heartbeat,” the brother told Fox News Digital. “We as a family want swift justice.”
“My brother is a good person and he did not deserve this. Nobody deserves to be attacked with a hatchet on the side of their neck. It’s very heinous,” he added.
Luke Couch further relayed what he was told what had happened, according to investigators and eyewitnesses.
“They were on the way home from Los Angeles. Their bus stopped in Tucson. They had always wanted to see the desert,” Luke Couch said of his brother and sister-in-law. “Somebody told them to get up, and my brother told him to mind his own business, you know, they weren’t doing anything, weren’t causing any trouble. And then Kristen could tell that the guy was really agitated, and so she told him they were getting up, and they were going to leave.”
“My brother bent down to gather his things because they just got off the bus so they had their suitcases and their belongings with them,” he told Fox News Digital. “He bent down to gather his things, and the man came up behind him and swung a hatchet. And witnesses said that he lifted the ax up over his head and swang it.”
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Luke Couch said his brother has started to open his eyes slightly in recent days but hasn’t shown much improvement. Jacob is also the father to a 15-year-old daughter.
His brother said doctors assessed he has limited brain function after suffering heavy blood loss.
“Doctors haven’t given us much hope,” Luke Couch told Fox News Digital. “Even though we are just a small family from a small town in Alabama, you know, we do believe that God can move mountains and the power of prayer works. So we please encourage people just to keep praying for him because he is not gone yet and miracles have happened before.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Democratic Pima County Attorney Laura Conover’s office for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Luke Couch questioned why Michael wasn’t initially charged with attempted murder. He also had a message for prosecutors handling the case.
“Please do not let this slip through the cracks. We will not let this slip through the cracks as a family. Do not let this man get out and do this again,” he said. “If anybody is on the fence about whether it’s ethical or whatnot for ‘an eye for an eye’ or a harsher punishment, I encourage them to go and look at my brother lying up in a hospital bed.”
“This country is not as safe as we thought,” Luke Couch continued. “Please don’t let these criminals think that they can just get away with this because, from my understanding, this has become a pattern in Tucson. I’m not from this area, I don’t know for sure, but I can speak on what has happened to me and my family and it’s senseless. No parent should have to bury their child. And my mother may have to do that at this moment. And it’s not right.”
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help cover the costs of staying near the hospital in Tucson.
In a statement obtained by Fox News Digital, the Tucson Police Department said officers responded at approximately 10 a.m. April 5 to find “an unresponsive male with sharp-force trauma at the southeast corner of East Broadway Boulevard and South 6th Avenue.”
“Bystanders attempted to render aid to the victim, and officers took over life-saving efforts until the Tucson Fire Department arrived. TFD transported the victim to Banner University Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. Additional officers searched the area for the suspect, but he was not located,” according to police.
Detectives from the Robbery Assault Unit later responded to the scene and “learned that the male suspect had approached the victim and his wife at the bus stop,” police said. “The suspect initiated a confrontation with the couple during which time he produced a sharp-edged weapon and struck the male victim. After the assault, the suspect walked away from the scene and boarded a public streetcar, leaving the area.”
Police said investigators collected evidence and obtained images of the suspect, ultimately identifying him as Michael. Michael was arrested at his home in Tucson’s East Side three days later.
Police said a search warrant was executed at the home, “where investigators located additional evidence.”
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