Two weeks after an unprovoked hatchet attack nearly decapitated a man sitting with his wife at a Tucson, Arizona, bus stop, the suspect has been charged with first-degree murder.
Daniel Michael, 25, was initially charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault with serious injury earlier this month after the April 5 attack that left Jacob Couch, 32, on life support.
On Friday, Couch died of his injuries, and Michael now faces first-degree murder charges, the Tucson Police Department confirmed in a press release Saturday.
“He’s got the biggest heart that I believe I’ve ever met,” Couch’s younger brother, Luke Couch, told Fox News Digital earlier this month. “And I really do mean that. He was just a caring person. He loved his family. He was really big about his family.”
Couch and his wife, Kristen, were in California mourning the loss of their stillborn son, and they decided to travel across the country back to their hometown of Arab, Alabama, by bus.
On their way home, their bus stopped in Tucson, Luke told Fox News Digital.
“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,” he said. “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.”
When Couch bent down to gather his things, “the man came up behind him and swung a hatchet. And witnesses said that he lifted the ax up over his head and swung it,” he said.
Michael fled after the alleged attack, which happened around 10 a.m. He was arrested three days later at his Tucson home.
His lawyer, in the initial bond hearing, said self-defense couldn’t be ruled out, but Luke Couch balked at that idea, telling Fox News Digital there was “no evidence” to support that.
“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 stressed.
“I want to make sure this man never does this again and no other family has to go through what my family has gone through,” he added. “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. We as a family want swift justice.”
Couch was the father of a 15-year-old girl.
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