FSU Shooting: Former RHS Students React
November 20, 2014
Early this morning, Myron May, 31, opened fire in FSU’s Strozier Library early this Thursday morning. May, a FSU graduate, was shot and killed during a confrontation with police after he shot at one of the officers. Three were injured in the attack: one is in critical condition at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, one, Nathan Scott, was shot in the leg but is in stable condition, and another was grazed by a bullet and treated at the scene.
“I was in my dorm studying, and I heard a couple loud noises. I didn’t think they were shots at first, brushing it off as a car hitting something,” said Jared Kraemer, who graduated Robinson in 2014. “A friend came in and asked if I had heard the gunshots. Not a few minutes later sirens could be heard everywhere.”
Kraemer said immediately after, he started checking Yik Yak, a social media app that lets users to create and see anonymous posts close to their location, to find out more about what was going on, and texted all his friends that he didn’t know the whereabouts of to warn them.
“I was walking home from the library when the sirens started to go off. I had no idea what was going on so I ran back home before my dorm was locked down,” said Jessica Prescott, a 2013 Robinson graduate. “I had never heard the sirens before and I was just scared. It’s close to finals so there were a lot of people in the library and if I had waited a little while longer, I could have been one of those people trapped in there with the gunman.”
Following the crisis, all classes were canceled Thursday, but university services remained open to help any students or employees affected.
Madison Scanlan’s Facebook post.
“It didn’t feel like it happened, like it all was a weird dream,” said Madison Scanlan, who graduated in 2014. “I’m always cautious when I leave campus, especially during the later hours in the day, but now I’m going to keep my safety in mind when going to the library to study or walking close to my dorm.”
In a message released to the public from FSU President John Thrasher, Thrasher cited the university and local police’s quick response time in key to help preventing the violence from escalating even further, as the library was packed with students studying for upcoming finals, and said it was an isolated incident.
“I have never felt unsafe on the FSU campus, it’s basically my home now, and I don’t feel this freak accident [is] going to change that,” said Kraemer. “If anything, it’s just going to make me more aware of my surroundings.”
