Teen fatally stabbed at Buffalo college

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Police are still searching for a man they say killed Tyler Lewis, 19, outside of a student housing complex in Buffalo on Friday.

Lewis, of Baldwin, was stabbed outside of Ellicott Complex at SUNY Buffalo during the early evening hours of Oct. 14. Campus police described the man as white, between 19 and 22, with light brown hair, standing between 5-foot-5 and 5-foot-9.

Eyewitnesses told police the man was wearing a bloodstained shirt, and had multiple cuts on this face. He fled the scene in a black four-door sedan.

“It’s just shocking to know that he’s gone,” Ion Maravilla, who graduated with Lewis at Baldwin High School, told News 12 Long Island. “It’s really tough. I can’t imagine the pain the family is going through right now.”

According to reports, neighbors have already begun leaving flowers in front of the Baldwin home of Lewis’ parents. He was a pre-business administration major at SUNY Buffalo State, which is a 15-minute drive from SUNY Buffalo. He played baseball, and even participated in NASA Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, when he was younger, according to The Buffalo News.

University police were called out to Ellicott Complex — six buildings that house more than 3,200 students — around 7:30 on Friday evening about a man with a chest wound. They found Lewis on Moody Terrace, a roadway near the housing complex, on SUNY Buffalo’s north campus.

Investigators believe Lewis may have known his attacked, and that the stabbing stemmed from a “physical altercation between several individuals.”

Lewis was rushed to the Erie County Medical Center where he died from his injuries.

“Our officers and investigators are working around the clock with local law enforcement partners to bring the individuals involved to justice,” said Chris Batrolomei, SUNY Buffalo’s police chief, in a statement. “I want to reassure our community that our campuses are extremely safe.”

The most common crimes on campus are liquor and drug law violations, according to 2021 statistics provided by SUNY Buffalo police. Other crimes like rape, arson, dating violence and stalking were much rarer.

Investigators are asking anyone with information to call them at (716) 645-2222.

“The Baldwin school district was saddened to hear about the tragic loss of a former student, Tyler Lewis,” officials there said in a statement. “No words can ever describe the sorrow we feel during a time like this. Our condolences go out to his familyand friends as the Baldwin community grieves the passing of one of their own.”