Two people were hospitalized in stable condition after the predawn attack near the Tampa campus.
TAMPA, FL — A University of South Florida student suspected of stabbing two people near campus was believed to be dead Wednesday after deputies opened a second death investigation at another Tampa apartment complex, authorities said.
The case began before dawn at an off-campus student housing complex on North 46th Street and spread by afternoon to East Fletcher Avenue, less than two miles from USF’s main Tampa campus. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said both stabbing victims were stable, all people involved had been identified and detectives were still working to explain how the two scenes were connected.
Deputies said the first emergency call came at 4:26 a.m. June 3 from a man who reported that he and another person had been stabbed at an apartment complex on North 46th Street. Local reports identified the complex as Halo 46 Apartments, a large student housing property in the area north of Fowler Avenue. The sheriff’s office said the suspect and one of the victims were USF students. USF police later said the student victim and the suspected attacker were roommates, while the second victim was not connected to the university.
By 10:30 a.m., the sheriff’s office said detectives were investigating a double stabbing and that both victims had been taken for medical treatment. At 3:45 p.m., the agency announced a separate death investigation at 3600 East Fletcher Ave., the address of Union on Fletcher apartments. Detectives said they believed the person found dead there was the stabbing suspect. The sheriff’s office said the person’s name would not be released until relatives were notified. Officials had not released the person’s cause of death, the weapon used in the stabbings or a possible motive by Wednesday evening.
The two addresses sit in a busy stretch of student housing, restaurants and major roads near USF. The North 46th Street complex is south of Fletcher Avenue and close to the campus medical and research district. Union on Fletcher is east of the first scene. Deputies did not say whether the suspected attacker went from one complex to the other, how the person died or who found the body. The sheriff’s office said the investigation remained active and that updates would come from its Public Affairs Office.
USF police said there was no continuing threat to the campus community. The statement came as students near the apartment complex described waking up to police lights, crime scene tape and blood in common areas. Brooke Lahciev, a USF student who lives at Halo 46, said she saw several police cars while walking her dog. “We saw yellow tape and five police cars,” Lahciev said, adding that she also saw a bloody shirt and blood on the ground. Another student, Mackenzie Miller, said she saw bloodstains along a hallway and stairwell after leaving her apartment.
The episode added to unease around USF’s off-campus housing area after a separate criminal case earlier this spring involving two doctoral students from Bangladesh. Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy, both 27, were reported missing in April. Limon’s remains were later found, and authorities said Bristy was presumed dead. Hisham Saleh Abugharbieh, a former USF student and Limon’s roommate, was charged with first-degree murder in that case. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted. That case is separate from Wednesday’s stabbing investigation.
No charges had been announced in the stabbing case because the suspected attacker was believed to be dead. Detectives still must complete death notification, review evidence from both apartment complexes, interview witnesses and determine the full timeline. The sheriff’s office did not release the victims’ names or ages. It also did not say whether the surviving victims had been able to give formal statements beyond the 911 call that brought deputies to the North 46th Street complex.
Investigators were still treating both scenes as active Wednesday evening. The next public milestone is the release of the deceased person’s name after next-of-kin notification and any further findings from detectives on the link between the stabbing and the death investigation.
Author note: Last updated June 4, 2026.