The suspect is charged with first-degree murder two weeks after an unprovoked hatch attack was nearly beheaded by a man sitting with his wife at a bus stop in Tucson, Arizona.
Daniel Michael, 25, was seriously injured after being charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after an attack on April 5th, which left Jacob Couch, 32, on life support earlier this month.
Couch died of injuries on Friday, and Michael is now facing first-degree murder charges, the Tucson Police Department confirmed in a press release on Saturday.
“He has the biggest heart I’ve ever met,” Couch’s younger brother Luke Couch told Fox News Digital earlier this month. “And I really mean that. He was just a caring person. He loved his family. He was really big about his family.”
The brother of a man who was almost beheaded at Arizona bus stop after wielding a suspect at Arizona bus stop
Daniel Michael has been charged with murder of Jacob Couch. (Funding me/Pima County)
Couch and his wife, Kristen, lament the loss of their son who lived in California, decide to take a bus back to their hometown of Arab Arabs.
On the way home, the bus stopped in Tucson, Luke told Fox News Digital.
“Someone told me to wake up and my brother told him to care about his business. They weren’t doing anything, they weren’t causing any trouble,” he said. “And Kristen could tell that the guy was really upset, so she told him they were awake and they were about to leave.”
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Young Jacob Sofa smiles in a family photo provided by Fox News Digital. (Luke Couch/Fox News Digital)
The couch bends and gathers things, he says, “The man came behind him and shaking a hatch, and the witness said he lifted an x over his head and shook it.”
Michael fled after an attack that took place around 10am. He was arrested three days later at his Tucson home.
His lawyer said at his first bond hearing that self-defense cannot be ruled out, but Luke Couch balked the idea and told Fox News Digital that he “has no evidence” in support of it.
Jacob and Luke Couch as young children in family photos provided to Fox News Digital. (Luke Couch/Fox News Digital)
“And they said he was trying to grasp the straw and grab anything. So my brother was attacked from behind while he was bent. That’s not self-defense,” Luke emphasized.
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“I want to make sure this guy never does this again and make sure that what my family has gone through must go through other families,” he added. “When I see my brother lying in the hospital bed and unable to move, and doing nothing, it hurts to know that I couldn’t protect him because he did it for me with a heartbeat. We want quick justice.”
Couch was the father of a 15-year-old girl.
