Police: Man attempted suicide after stabbing

By ANGELA MOORE

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 3, 2000

TAMPA -- A lovers' quarrel Thursday in the Tampa General Hospital parking garage ended with the stabbing death of a woman and the suicide attempt of her boyfriend, who deliberately jumped in front of a car while running from the garage, police said.

"They came here, had some kind of an argument, and altercation, and he stabbed her in a rage," Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin said. "He then ran out of the parking garage and across the bridge, where he quite literally threw himself in front of a passing motorist."

Several people in the parking garage had heard screaming about 5 p.m. and told a security guard.

The guard searched each floor and found a young woman's body next to a 1988 maroon Buick on the fourth level. She had been stabbed in the neck with a 6-inch knife just moments before and was losing blood rapidly.

The security guard called police and Tampa General's emergency room staff.

"A trauma unit ran up there immediately," Durkin said. "They made some heroic efforts, but she was too badly injured. They pronounced her dead on the scene."

At the same time, 911 dispatchers alerted police and paramedics to a serious accident on the bridge connecting Davis Islands to Bayshore Boulevard. A young man had been hit by a car as he ran over the bridge.

Immediately, police thought the two incidents might be related. Witnesses to the car accident said a man "just popped up in front of the car," Durkin said.

The man was conscious as he was brought to the emergency room and talked about what had happened while being treated, Durkin said. "He kept saying, "I did terrible things, a horrible thing, we had a fight,' on and on like that," Durkin said.

Police had not yet notified relatives Thursday night, and did not release the names of the man or woman.

Durkin said police did not know why the couple was at Tampa General, or what sparked the violence. Neither worked at the hospital and neither was a patient, police said.

No one witnessed the stabbing, Durkin said, although several people saw a man running from the garage. Officials said the man will recover from his injuries.

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