On the first day of Spring Break, UF students — most of them miles from Gainesville — woke up to UF Alerts about crime in the city.
The first message about an on-campus stabbing went out at about 7 a.m. Hours later, the suspect, 28-year-old Michael Matthew Cravey, died from officer-inflicted injuries after he charged at police with a hatchet.
The morning began when Cravey stabbed a man in the parking lot behind Leigh Hall near Library West, said University Police Maj. Brad Barber.
Cravey left in a black Jeep; a car chase ensued.
When Cravey began running red lights and driving the wrong direction on Newberry Road, police deemed it too dangerous to continue.
At about 9:50 a.m., the Jeep crashed into another car on Archer Road, injuring that driver. Cravey ran on foot into Butler Plaza.
Roughly 10 minutes later, Gainesville Police Lt. Mike Schibuola saw Cravey hiding a hatchet in front of Best Buy, according to a GPD press release. The officer confronted him.
Cravey ran with the hatchet in the air, “coming within feet of striking” Schibuola, according to the release. The officer fired shots that hit Cravey, who later died at UF Health Shands Hospital.
No officers were harmed.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 3/10/2014 under the headline "Police shoot suspect in campus stabbing"]
