Kendall Berry, FIU Football Player, Stabbed to Death

MIAMI (CBS/AP) FIU 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 launching police on a search for multiple suspects.

The 22-year-old Florida International  football player 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.

Baez said the stabbing took place just outside the front doors of the campus recreation center, where he said the football team and other FIU athletes train.

According to officials, Berry was involved in an argument with one or more people.

"One produced some type of a weapon and stabbed him," Baez said.

News cameras captured 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, from Haines City, Fla., appeared in all 12 FIU games as a freshman in 2007. 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 first seven games because of his continuing recovery from the knee injury.

"When you put the football in his hands, that kid can do some unbelievable things," football coach Mario Cristobal said late last season of Berry.

Shortly after the university confirmed Berry's death, FIU indefinitely postponed football coaching clinics scheduled for Friday and Saturday.