INDIANAPOLIS (WXIN) — Bartender Scott Bennett was closing up Loughmiller’s Pub & Eatery in Indianapolis on Saturday when an injured man started pounding on the bar’s window.
“As I was closing, somebody was beating on the window, just a random person,” Bennett said of the 12:30 a.m. incident. “I looked and saw that the person needed help and went outside, and the person had blood on him, and he said that he’d been shot.
“Brought him inside and laid him down, and we called 911 and put towels over the injuries that he had.”
Bennett didn’t know it at the time, but he was trying to save the life of former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez, who was in Indianapolis to call the Colts-Raiders game Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium for Fox Sports.
“There was blood, definitely, it wasn’t shooting out or anything like that, but there was definitely blood,” Bennett said. “Some from the chest and some from the abdomen and crotch region. There was blood on his pants. I was trying to talk to him a little bit, tried to get his name, couldn’t really understand what he was saying. I didn’t recognize him at all.”
Sanchez had been stabbed in the chest allegedly by a 69-year-old man who told IMPD he was driving a large truck on a route to pick up kitchen grease for recycling from restaurants when he pulled into an alley adjacent to the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown.
The man told police that Sanchez became agitated at the location of his truck, started harassing him and pursuing him, then entered his truck and threatened him.
The driver said he responded with pepper spray, which appeared to have only minimal effect, and then pulled out a knife because “this guy is trying to kill me.”
Photographs of the truck driver supplied to Nexstar’s WXIN show the man in a hospital bed in a neck brace with a deep laceration on his left cheek.
The man said Sanchez smelled of alcohol and his speech was slurred.
The bartender who tended to Sanchez’s injuries said he could not detect any signs of drinking or impairment.
Sanchez had been charged with misdemeanor criminal charges of battery resulting in injury, public intoxication, and unlawful entry of a motor vehicle for his alleged role in the altercation. But after seeing the extent of the victim’s injuries and factoring in the victim’s age, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears moved to upgrade Sanchez’s charges to a Level 5 felony battery of causing serious injury, the prosecutor said at a press conference Monday.
Detectives reviewed surveillance video from the alley to match the driver’s account.
Sanchez was due in court for his initial hearing on Tuesday morning. He has a $300 cash bond and a no-contact order. Public records indicate Sanchez has posted bond.
A source with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that deputies officially “processed” Sanchez while he was still at the hospital. That means Sanchez is technically out of jail on bond.
The same MCSO official also indicated that Sanchez may not be subjected to a booking photo because he was processed at the hospital instead of the Marion County Jail.
It was unclear whether Sanchez had been released from the hospital.
Noted Indianapolis defense attorney Jim Voyles told WXIN that he has been contacted regarding representing Sanchez on the misdemeanor criminal counts.