TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona State running back Loren Wade has been arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a former ASU football player outside a Scottsdale night club early Saturday.
Police said Brandon Falkner, 25, of Tempe was shot in the head as he sat in his car outside club CBNC about 2:30 a.m.
Falkner and Wade had exchanged sharp words, police said, before the shot was fired.
Wade was driving a car with three others inside when he went to the club to pick up his girlfriend and saw her standing next to Falkner's car, Scottsdale police detective Sam Bailey said. Wade got out of the car, police said, exchanged words with Falkner, then shot him once in the head.
Falkner tried to drive away, but crashed into another car, then hit a tree. He was pronounced dead at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborne Hospital.
"From everything I've heard, they didn't know each other," Bailey said. "He may have been in the wrong place, at the wrong time, talking to the wrong person."
Wade was taken into custody by Maricopa County deputy sheriffs working as security guards at the club.
Falkner was a three-year letterman for the Sun Devils from 1999 to 2001.
Wade, 21, from Los Angeles, started the first three games for Arizona State as a sophomore last season, then was suspended for the remainder of the schedule while the school investigated whether he had received improper benefits from a university employee. He had returned to the team and was participating in spring practice
The university found that a compliance assistant in the school's compliance and recruitment department put her name on a line of credit to pay an overdue utility bill for Wade. The compliance officer was fired.
As a redshirt freshman in 2003, Wade broke the school freshman rushing record and finished fifth in the Pac-10 with 773 yards and an average of 5.7 yards per carry. He played at Serra High School in Gardena, Calif., where he earned first-team all-state honors as a senior.