At least two people were killed and five injured in mass shooting at Florida State University
Police said a gunman opened fire at Florida State University on Thursday, killing two people and injuring at least five people.
Authorities say the 20-year-old gunman is the son of the sheriff’s deputy, whose former service weapons were used in the shooting.
Jason Trumbower, head of the Florida State University police department, said the two people who died were not students at the university in Tallahassee, Florida, but the shooter is believed to be a student.
Truban Ball said five people were treated at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and the shooter was also treated with medical care.
The frightened students and their parents hid in the bowling alley and squeezed into the freight elevator inside the student union after hearing gunfire outside the building.
Ambulances, fire trucks and patrol vehicles from multiple law enforcement agencies competed on campus west of the Florida capital after the university issued an active shooter alert at noon Thursday, saying police responded near the student union.
“In that moment, it was survival”
Ryan Cedergren, a 21-year-old communications student, said he and about 30 people were hiding in the lower bowling alley on the league’s lower level and saw students running around from nearby bars.
“In that moment, it was survival,” he said, and about 15 minutes later, university police escorted the student out of the building and he saw a man undergoing emergency treatment on the lawn.
Chris Pento told TV station WCTV that he and his twins had lunch at the student union on campus tour when they heard gunshots.
“That’s surreal. People are just starting to run.” After meeting the locked door at the end of the corridor, they squeezed into the service elevator.
“That’s probably the scariest, because we don’t know. It could get worse, right?” he said. “The door is open, there are two officers there, guns.”
About three hours after the shooting, Florida’s alert system announced a “neutralization threat” by law enforcement.
Officials asked students and faculty to avoid crime scenes that remained considered active in student unions and other fields.
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including forensic trucks, were parked outside the student union.
The officers blocked the area with crime scene videotapes. Students and staff who left phone calls, keys and other items were eager to evacuate and wait in the shadows and pray for the victims.
President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office that he had given a sufficient brief introduction to the shooting.
“It’s a terrible thing. It’s terrible to happen like this,” he said.
Students and faculty covered up classrooms, offices and dormitories on campus after receiving warnings from active shooters.
“The first thing you think of is, ‘It’s not right,’ right?” said Kai McGalla, a sophomore who spoke over the phone when the campus test center was locked.
Junior Joshua Sirmans, 20, was in the main library when the alarm sounded. Law enforcement officers took him and other students to the library, with their hands raised to their heads.
Florida State University is one of the 12 public universities in Florida, with its main campus in Tallahassee.
According to the school’s 2024 profile, the university has approximately 44,000 students enrolled.
In 2014, the main library was the site of the shooting, which injured three people. The officer shot and killed the gunman of 31-year-old Myron May.
The University canceled all classes and events on Thursday and canceled all family sports events by Sunday.
