Oak Hill, FL – Investigators have arrested a 37-year-old Oak Hill man for stabbing a man to death with a pocket knife during a street fight and sending another man to the hospital in that same incident.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office says it happened around 8:30pm Sunday on the 300 block of Beehive Drive in Oak Hill.
VCSO spokesman Gary Davidson says Paul Thompson was tentatively identified by the Major Case Unit as the suspect soon after the stabbings and was caught by deputies on Monday at a home on Eels Grove Road in Edgewater.
“During questioning, Thompson admitted stabbing both victims but claimed it was done in self-defense,” Davidson added. “However, in charging Thompson, investigators concluded that his claims of self-defense were inconsistent with the eye-witness accounts of witnesses at the scene.”
Davidson mentioned that the suspect apparently approached the victims on a bicycle after coming upon them horse-playing in the front yard of a home on Beehive Drive.
“It’s unclear what started the fight, but witnesses said they saw the 3 in a verbal altercation that turned physical and resulted in Thompson pulling out a small knife and stabbing the victims in the neck area before fleeing on his bicycle,” Davidson noted. “The knife believed to be used in the stabbing was recovered from the house on Eels Grove Road.”
26-year-old Scott Ramsey of Oak Hill died at the scene while 22-year-old Donald Smith of Jacksonville was taken by ambulance as a trauma alert to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach.
“As of the last check, Smith’s injuries were not believed to be life-threatening,” Davidson said. “[He] remains hospitalized.”
The Volusia County Medical Examiner’s Office will do an autopsy on Ramsey to officially determine his cause of death, per Davidson.
Thompson is charged with 1 count of 2nd-degree murder and 1 count of attempted 2nd-degree murder. He’s held without bond at Volusia County Jail.
Paul Thompson (mugshot courtesy VCJ)
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