KITSAP COUNTY, Wash — In a harrowing incident, a DoorDash driver who was viciously stabbed while trying to help a family in distress has been released from the hospital just three days after the near-fatal encounter.

Melvin Swagerty, a 60-year-old from Port Angeles, was discharged from Harborview Medical Center on Wednesday. He had been in the intensive care unit, recovering from severe stab wounds inflicted on his face, neck, torso, back, and hands.

The ordeal unfolded on Sunday night as Swagerty was driving along Highway 101 near Deer Park in Clallam County. While on a DoorDash run, he noticed the family stranded and decided to stop and offer them a ride.

“I’m pretty sure he just thought of his grandkids and it was like, what if that was my grandkids on the side of the road,” shared Christina Brown, Swagerty’s daughter, reflecting on her father’s selfless act.

According to the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, deputies had responded to a welfare check on the family just moments before the attack. Undersheriff Lorraine Shore described Swagerty as a good Samaritan who simply wanted to help.

“We had a good Samaritan who was a DoorDash driver who saw them and decided, ‘I will stop and see if I can help out the family,’” Shore said.

But shortly after picking up the family, detectives say the parents turned on him, stabbing him multiple times before throwing him out of his own blue Lexus RX300 and driving off with the vehicle and children inside.

“Shame on you. That was a horrible thing to do. And in front of your kids,” Brown said.

A passing driver called 911, and Swagerty was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. An alert was sent out for seven missing children.

His brother, Martin Witherspoon, picked him up Wednesday afternoon.

“The first thing he says is why did I even stop, so now he’s second guessing his kind nature and that breaks my heart,” Witherspoon said. “He’ll probably never do it again. Ever. And that’s sad.”

Just before 5 a.m. Monday, Kitsap County deputies located the stolen Lexus stopped in the middle of a roadway. Inside, they found 30-year-old Nicholas Well and 29-year-old Rosario Lopez Castro along with their seven children. Investigators reported finding blood in the driver area and a bloody knife in Well’s pocket.

The couple was taken into custody, and the children were turned over to Child Protective Services.

Well and Lopez Castro were initially charged Tuesday in Kitsap County with possession of a stolen vehicle and multiple counts of reckless endangerment. 

On Wednesday, Clallam County filed additional charges of attempted murder in the second degree, first-degree robbery, and theft of a motor vehicle against both defendants, with deadly weapon enhancements and an added aggravator for committing the offense against a good Samaritan.

They are currently being held in Kitsap County, Well on $750,000 bail and Lopez Castro on $750,000 bail.