Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is mourning a young airman who was stabbed to death during a weekend visit with family members in Scottsdale.
Airman Spencer Goode, 20, a paralegal in D-M's legal department, was knifed shortly before midnight Saturday in the parking lot of a Kwik Mart convenience store.
Goode, bleeding from his upper body, made his way into the store to ask for help, Scottsdale police said. He was taken to a hospital and was pronounced dead.
A suspect, Rafael Morales Jr., 27, reportedly sped away but turned himself in the next day. The Glendale resident has not been charged.
"At this point, there are no formal charges filed because we are still putting our case together," said Officer Dave Pubins, a Scottsdale police spokesman.
According to online court and prison records, Morales pleaded no contest in 2006 to disorderly conduct/fighting, and also has convictions for theft and possession of drug paraphernalia.
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He served five months in the Arizona State Prison system in 2006, records show.
Pubins said that as far as police can tell, the two men were strangers who somehow got into an argument in the store's parking lot. The disagreement "became a physical altercation, which culminated in the stabbing," he said.
Police were not yet sure what precipitated the conflict.
Goode was visiting his sister, who lives in Scottsdale, according to the White Lake Beacon, a newspaper in the western Michigan community of Whitehall, where Goode went to high school.
The newspaper described Goode as an accomplished high school athlete, skilled in soccer and basketball, and a popular student known for his sense of humor.
Goode joined the Air Force in January 2007 and was assigned to D-M a few months later, said a base spokesman, Staff Sgt. Jacob Richmond.
Goode's Air Force colleagues held a prayer vigil in his honor on Tuesday, and base officials have been in touch with the airman's family to offer condolences, Richmond said.
