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Left: TJ and Krisan Pizzitola (GoFundMe). Right: Drew Meneses, inset, (Maricopa County Jail) and Pattie’s First Avenue Bar, background (Google Maps).
In Arizona, law enforcement has detained five individuals linked to a violent altercation outside a Scottsdale bar, resulting in the tragic death of a man who was on the verge of fatherhood.
Among those apprehended, 24-year-old Drew Meneses faces the gravest allegation—second-degree murder—in the case of Thomas John “TJ” Pizzitola’s death. Meneses is accused of delivering a fatal sucker punch from behind during a confrontation between his group and Pizzitola’s.
Others implicated include Mark Whitford, 23, Tony Becker, 26, and Julius Husser, 27, all charged with aggravated assault, while Krista Molina, 27, is dealing with charges of assault and disorderly conduct.
According to a criminal complaint reviewed by local Fox affiliate KSAZ, the incident unfolded when Pizzitola and his friends were evicted from Pattie’s First Avenue bar in Old Town Scottsdale shortly after 2 a.m. on October 11 for disorderly behavior. While waiting for a rideshare, a member of Pizzitola’s group reportedly collided with a woman in Meneses’ entourage, igniting a heated dispute.
The subsequent events were recorded on cellphone footage.
“What you can see is [Pizzitola] standing with his arms to his side and you can see [Meneses] walk up behind him and essentially what we refer to as sucker punched him in the head. That one punch caused the victim to have brain injury so severe that he went down completely unconscious and never recovered,” prosecutor Angela Andrews told a judge, according to local NBC affiliate KPNC.
The suspects fled the scene but cops arrested them last week.
Meneses told the judge he didn’t mean for anything bad to happen.
“I just, it was a bad night. It was not supposed to happen like that at all and there was no malicious intent for that at all,” he reportedly said.
Pizzitola got married in July 2024 and he and his wife were expecting their first child.
“He wanted to be a dad more than anything. His biggest dream was to be a dad and a husband, and he had one of them,” Krisan Pizzitola told KPNC. “TJ never missed an OB-GYN appointment. He went to every single one, no matter how big, how small.”
Said his mother Gina Pizzitola: “It makes me angry because it truly was the one thing that he wanted and he was so excited about.”
Friends started a GoFundMe account for the victim’s wife and baby.