Former Skyline High football player stabbed 45 times in Montana

SEATTLE — A former standout Skyline High School football player from Sammamish was reportedly in satisfactory condition Monday night after he was stabbed multiple times by a stranger during a home invasion Saturday morning in Montana, according to police.

Sam Mix, 19, a freshman football player at Montana State University-Northern, was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Sunday.

According to police in Havre, Montana, 17-year-old Justice Lawrence Brown was arrested and charged with multiple counts of attempted homicide and burglary.

Havre police Chief Gabe Matosich said Brown, who had never met his victims, broke in through a back window of the apartment building after 4 a.m. Saturday morning. Detectives say Brown grabbed a kitchen knife and attacked Mix and two female students, ages 19 and 20.

One of the stabbing victims was able to call for help from a neighbor.

When Havre police arrived, they found Mix and an unconscious female victim on the floor. Mix and the two women were airlifted to trauma centers in Montana.

"Sam and the two girls, it wasn't their apartment," said Mix. "It was one of the girl's apartments and he was just crashing there for the night, and the intruder, the burglary went bad," father Dean Mix told KIRO 7.

Police say minutes after the attack, another 911 call led them to the suspect.

Matosich said officers “located an individual with quite a bit of what appeared to be blood all over him."

Matosich said the female victim was able to identify the suspect.

“That person matched the description given by one of the victims from the stabbing," he said.

According to Havre Police, the culprit is a 17-year-old local resident who was already awaiting trial on a rape charge.

Mix was a standout on the football field at Skyline High School and became a starter last year at Montana State Northern.
 
"He's a great kid," said Dean Mix.
 
And a resilient one.
 
"The doctors were saying it's a true miracle you can walk away from 45 stab wounds," Mix said. "I'm not a religious person per se, but there's obviously a better, bigger calling for him."
 
Mix said one of the young women is still hospitalized in Montana. The other woman has been released.

According to court documents, Brown, who already had a felony warrant for his arrest, claimed to have no memory of the attack. He could be waived into adult court in the next week, according to police.

Friends of the victims set up a gofundme.com page, asking for support and prayers. Click here to help. 

Sam faces eight to 10 weeks of recovery, but doctors told his parents he should make a full recovery.

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