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As UB-PD continues to investigate fatal stabbing, students share what they think about campus safety

AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) — On Saturday, UB Police told News 4, that they believe they are making progress in the investigation, with the help from students who witnessed what happened.

University at Buffalo Police investigating fatal stabbing on North Campus

“Thankfully there were quite a few students who came forward to say that they were bystanders and they witnessed different parts of the incident, so our investigators worked all night, taking statements from individuals canvassing the area,” Chris Bartolomei, Chief of UB’s Police told News 4. “It’s very likely that at least one of these individuals was affiliated with the university, since this occurred at UB, so far we only know that the victim was a Buffalo State student.”

Just after 7:30pm on Friday, UB’s police received calls about an altercation that was happening outside of the Richmond Quad, and about a man who was stabbed in the chest. 19-year-old Tyler Lewis, a Buffalo State student, was sent to ECMC, where he was pronounced dead.

Police say they heard from students who witnessed the stabbing and believe the altercation was between at least four people.

They have identified one person of interest as:

White Male, 19-22 years oldMedium BuildLight Brown HairApprox. 5.5-5.9 in heightLeft the scene wearing a mustard colored shirt covered in bloodLeft in a Black 4 door Sedan

While the incident happened this Friday, UB police hope students continue to feel safe on campus.

“I hope our students understand–this is an extremely rare occurrence on our campus. Over the years, we do of course get reporters of fights, assaults, and altercations, they almost never end in a fatality,” said Bartolomei. “You would have to go all the way back to the 1980s to find a similar example. This is an extremely rare occurrence for us.”

We spoke to students on campus to see how they feel, and some had mixed emotions.

“I mean usually I feel pretty safe here, but to know someone was stabbed and to get that email while I’m sitting in my dorm, and it’s like night and dark out and everything, that’s kind of crazy,” said Skylar Roth, a Freshman at U.B.

Some students, like freshman Tsrenj Dolma, want to see some more security cameras on campus, to help situations like this in the future.

“I thought this campus was safe, but from this situation, it definitely changed my perspective,” said Dolma. “The campus should really focus on the lack of cameras to prevent this type of situations from occurring again.”

To help students feel safe, UB-PD has increased police presence on campus, as they continue to investigate the incident. They encourage anyone with any information on Friday’s incident, to give them a call at (716) 645-2222.

Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.

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