Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Police: Man fatally stabbed with stick in argument about phone

An argument over a cell phone led to a fatal stabbing with a pointed stick Thursday morning outside a McDonald’s on Sahara Avenue, according to Metro Police.

Witnesses told police two males were arguing about 8:30 a.m. on the corner of Sahara Avenue and Paseo Del Prado when one stabbed the other in the neck, according to an arrest report released today.

The suspect then ran across the street and out of sight.

The victim, identified in the report as Brandon Pickford, was transported to University Medical Center, where he died.

At 10 a.m., a cable-television repairman flagged down an officer and said he saw a person who could be the suspect run into a vacant house at 3113 Alcoa St., the report states.

Police found the suspect, 31-year-old Asa Funderburk, in the backyard of a home behind the vacant house, police said. Funderburk had a small cut on one finger, police said.

The argument between the pair began when the victim didn’t let Funderburk borrow his cell phone, the report states.

Funderburk told police Pickford shoved him into traffic and raised his fist, so he grabbed a 6-inch pointed stick from his left pocket and swung it at the right side of Pickford’s neck, according to the arrest report. Funderburk found the stick in the street that morning, he told police.

Detectives arrested Funderburk on a count of murder with a deadly weapon and took him to the Clark County Detention Center, where he remains jailed without bail. The Clark County District Attorney’s Office has not yet filed formal charges.

The incident was one of three fatal stabbings in a 24-hour period in Las Vegas. Police said the stabbings do not appear to be related.

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