Students recalled the horrifying minutes when an active shooter opened fire around noon Thursday on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee, killing two and injuring six others.
Some of those searing reactions were captured in videos posted on social media.
The alleged gunman has been identified as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, an FSU student who is the son of a Leon County deputy sheriff, according to Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil. He was taken into custody after being shot and wounded by police.
The shooting was reported in the area near the student union around 12:01 p.m., FSU said. In one video, people were seen running across Tennessee Street to get away from the gunfire.
Another video, captured by Stefano Mussi, shows students being escorted out of the Leach Student Recreation Center after the shooting. They had been in lockdown there for about two hours.
FSU student Blake Leonard described hearing “about 12 shots go off” as he was walking in that area of the campus, followed by another 15 gunshots as he ran away.
“I initially thought it was construction or something, but in the back of my head, I was like, ‘those are gunshots,’ because you could hear the shots and then hear the impact of the bullets,” Leonard said.
FSU freshman Ann Akabanasiak told CBS affiliate WCTV she was walking to the campus after parking her car when she came across a group of girls leaving the student union who were crying. They told her they had heard gunshots.
Some of her friends were in lockdown on the campus amid the active shooter situation.
“[I] texted them. They said they’re scared. They’re in lockdown and they just want to go home,” Akabanasiak said.
A father touring FSU’s campus with his daughters felt lucky to have survived.
“God was watching over us,” he said, noting his daughter was trampled as people tried to run to safety when gunshots echoed.
“God was watching over us.” A father who was touring FSU’s campus with his daughters says his daughter was trampled while people were running to safety after hearing gunshots ring out. He says his family, along with several others, managed to escape on a service elevator and took shelter in a church across the street. #fsu #news #florida
The experience brought even more trauma for a number of students who survived the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and are now attending FSU. Fourteen people were killed in the Parkland school shooting.
President Trump said the shooting at FSU was “terrible” and a “shame,” but when asked if he wanted to see any changes to gun laws, he told reporters he has “an obligation to protect the Second Amendment.”
“These things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting, the people do,” he said.
Doug Myers is a digital content producer for CBS Texas. A longtime journalist, Doug has worked for four newspapers in Texas and Louisiana and for three television stations in Texas. He has also spent time as a digital content manager for a national trade association and as communications director for a state agency.
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