A 26-year-old Tempe man has been arrested in the murder of former ASU football player Tyrice Thompson.
Ian MacDonald, an apparent Navy veteran, is accused of stabbing Thompson five times on January 27 while Thompson was working as a bouncer at the Martini Ranch bar in Scottsdale. Thompson died from his injuries a few days later.
MacDonald's girlfriend, 22-year-old Samantha King, also was arrested, on charges of assault and hindering prosecution.
According to Scottsdale police, MacDonald and King were kicked out of Martini Ranch early on January 27, and at one point, another bouncer noticed MacDonald and Thompson were on the ground, and King was pulling on Thompson's dreadlocks.
After the bouncer broke up this scuffle, Thompson staggered away in the parking lot and collapsed -- he'd been stabbed.
There was a fight going on in another parking lot of Martini Ranch at the same time, according to police, but from what the club's employees saw, only MacDonald, King, and Thompson were involved in this incident.
Thompson, after being stabbed a total of five times, died a few days later. He was never able to speak to police to identify who stabbed him.
In interviews with police, both MacDonald and King denied that MacDonald had stabbed Thompson, and it appears that nobody else saw the actual stabbing. King admitted that she and MacDonald were in a physical fight with Thompson outside of Martini Ranch, but MacDonald denied that he had punched or stabbed Thompson at all, police say.
However, police interviewed a few of MacDonald's acquaintances and got a different story.
According to Scottsdale PD, MacDonald had admitted to a few people that he went out with that night that he'd stabbed Thompson, and he asked for their help getting rid of the knife.
Police say they haven't recovered the knife but believe he chucked it in a dumpster in Mesa.
Based on this, MacDonald was arrested on a second-degree murder charge, and King was arrested on charges of assault and hindering prosecution.
