One man’s dead after a stabbing early Wednesday morning on Des Moines’ north side. Polk County Chief Deputy Bill Vaughn says the call came around 2:30 in the morning. Dispatchers got a call that there was a fight at a nightclub called The Lumberyard. On the way another call came in that a man had been stabbed. The nightclub in question is a strip club on the city limits. The suspect took off running, but as deputies got there bystanders were already heading after him. They got help from witnesses who chased the man and helped take him into custody.

Though fire-rescue units and ambulances arrived, the injured man died at the scene, with a stab wound in his chest. The dead man’s identified as 27-year-old Luca Jon Pasa of West Des Moines. His assailant was arrested, and taken to the Polk County jail. Eighteen-year-old Eric Gilge of Des Moines was charged with first-degree murder. Deputy Vaughn says there’s no indication that the two had known each other earlier. There was a verbal fight that escalated to violence, Vaughn says, noting the two men hadn’t known each other before that time. “We believe it was just one of those random things.”