Mar 04, 2014 11:48 AM EST By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Police identified a man named Michael Cravey who was fatally shot after he charged an officer wielding a hatchet.

According to the Gainesville Sun, Cravey stabbed a man on the University of Florida's campus around 7 a.m. Monday morning. It was in their pursuit of Cravey that the Gainesville Police found him wielding a hatchet.

The Alachua County Sheriff's Office, Florida Highway Patrol and University of Florida Police Department aided the GPD in searching for Cravey, a 28-year-old from Gainesville.

He had no prior arrests in Gainesville, but was found to have used aliases online to discuss conspiracy theories surrounding James Holmes, the suspect in the Aurora, Colo. movie theater mass shooting.

UFPD spokesman Maj. Brad Barber said Cravey approached a couple in a parking lot behind Leigh Hall on the Gainesville campus Monday morning. Cravey stabbed the man, a UF staff member but not his wife, who called 9-1-1. Cravey fled the scene in a black Jeep.

Authorities told the Sun the stabbing was random and that Cravey did not know the victim. When police found Cravey on the road, he began driving recklessly, running reds and going the wrong way down a main road.

Cravey crashed his Jeep into another vehicle at an intersection and walked to a nearby plaza, Officer Ben Tobias, a GPD spokesman, said. Just after 10 a.m. Lt. Mike Schibuola approached Cravey with his firearm drawn. When Cravey began to charge brandishing his hatchet, Schibuola fired several rounds.

Both Cravey and his stabbing victim were taken to UF Health Shands Hospital. The stabbing victim is recovering from non-life threatening wounds, but Cravey died in the hospital shortly after being shot.

Tobias told the Sun Lt. Schibuola reacted the only way he could and did not have time to use another method of force to disarm Cravey.

"It happened in seconds," he said. "The guy literally sprinted towards him with the hatchet raised."

"The officer was forced to make this horrible decision, but he did it to save lives."

Schibuola has 16 years of experience and leads the GPD's Negotiation Response Team. Tobias said he will be placed in an administrative duty assignment while a full investigation is conducted.

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