Florida International running back Kendall Berry was stabbed to death in an incident on
the
school’s main Miami campus late Thursday night, immediately sending
shock and
grief across the university community and putting police on a search for
multiple suspects.
Berry, 22, was stabbed around 9 p.m., said Miami-Dade
police Det. Javier
Baez. Police were interviewing "several people that observed the
incident,"
Baez said, though he could not confirm if any suspect was in custody.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Kendall’s family," FIU president
Mark
B. Rosenberg said in a news release. "We are here to support them and
our
entire university community as all of us come to terms with this
tragedy."
FIU’s athletic department did not have further comment, and messages
left
for athletic director Pete Garcia and football coach Mario Cristobal
were not
immediately returned. Shortly after the university confirmed Berry’s
death, FIU
indefinitely postponed football coaching clinics scheduled for Friday
and
Saturday.
The football team’s annual spring game is scheduled for Wednesday.
It’s
unknown if that would take place as planned.
Baez said the stabbing took place just outside the front doors of the
campus
rec center, where he said the football team and other FIU athletes
train.
Berry, from Haines City, Fla., was involved in an argument with one
or more
people, Baez said.
"One produced some type of a weapon and stabbed him," Baez said.
Television images showed several students, including some identified
as FIU
athletes, hugging and crying later Thursday night near the spot where
the
stabbing took place. One student dropped to her knees in grief just
inside the
doorway, screaming.
Berry had 164 all-purpose yards in limited use as a freshman in 2007,
appearing in all 12 FIU games that season. He sat out the 2008 season
with a
knee injury and then had some breakout moments in 2009, rushing for
three
touchdowns in a span of 13 minutes against Middle Tennessee on Nov. 7
and
following that up with two more scores the following week in a win over
North
Texas.
Berry finished last season with a team-best seven touchdowns, despite
not
playing in the season’s first seven games because of continued rehab
from the
knee injury.
"When you put the football in his hands, that kid can do some
unbelievable
things," Cristobal said late last season of Berry.
FIU officials said they did not recall another killing on the
school’s
campus.