Tallahassee: A gunman opened fire Thursday at Florida State University, killing two people and wounded at least five others, police said. The 20-year-old gunman was the son of a sheriff’s deputy whose former service weapon was used in the shooting, authorities said.
The two people who died were not students at the university, but the shooter is believed to be a student, Florida State University Police Chief Jason Trumbower.
Five people were being treated at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Trumbower said, and the shooter was also receiving medical attention.
Students and frightened parents hid in a bowling alley and crammed into a freight elevator inside the student union after hearing gunshots outside the building.
Ambulances, fire trucks and patrol vehicles from multiple law enforcement agencies raced toward the campus just west of Florida’s capital after the university issued an active shooter alert midday Thursday, saying police were responding near the student union.
Ryan Cedergren, a 21-year-old communications student, said he and about 30 others hid in the bowling alley in the union’s lower level after seeing students running from a nearby bar.
“In that moment, it was survival,” he said.
After about 15 minutes, university police escorted the students out of the building and he saw a person getting emergency treatment on the lawn, he said.
Chris Pento told WCTV in Tallahassee that he and his twins were getting lunch at the student union during a campus tour when they heard gunshots.
“It was surreal. And people just started running,” he told the TV station.
They packed into a service elevator after encountering locked doors at the end of a hallway. “That was probably the scariest point because we didn’t know. It could get worse, right?” he said. “The doors opened and two officers were there, guns drawn.” Florida State’s alert system announced about three hours after the shooting that law enforcement had “neutralised the threat.” Officials asked students and faculty to avoid the student union and other areas still considered an active crime scene.
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including a forensics van, were parked outside the student union. Officers blocked off the area with crime scene tape.
Students and staff who left behind phones, keys and other items in the rush to evacuate waited in the shade and prayed for the victims.
President Donald Trump said from the Oval Office that he had been fully briefed on the shooting. “It’s a horrible thing. It’s horrible that things like this take place,” he said.
After receiving warnings of an active shooter, students and faculty took cover and waited in classrooms, offices and dorms across campus.
The first thing you think of is just, ‘This can’t be true,’ right?” said Kai McGalla, a sophomore who spoke by phone while locked down at a campus testing centre.
Junior Joshua Sirmans, 20, was in the main library when alarms went off. Law enforcement officers escorted him and other students from the library with their hands over their heads, he said.
Florida State University is one of Florida’s 12 public universities, with its main campus in Tallahassee. About 44,000 students are enrolled in the university, per the school’s 2024 fact sheet.
In 2014, the main library was the site of a shooting that wounded three people. Officers shot and killed the gunman, 31-year-old Myron May.
The university cancelled all classes and events for Thursday. It also cancelled home athletic events through Sunday.
