A shooter opened fire Thursday at Florida State UniversityKilling two people and injured at least five others, police said. The 20 -year -old shooter was the son of an assistant to a sheriff whose former service weapon was used in the shooting, the authorities said.
The two deceased people were not university students, but the shooter would be a student, said Florida State University police chief Jason Trombower.
Five people were treated at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, said Trombower, and the shooter also received medical care.
The frightened students and parents hid in a bowling alley and piled up in an elevator of goods inside the student union after hearing shots outside the building.
Ambulances, fire trucks and patrol vehicles of several law enforcement organizations ran to the campus just west of the capital of Florida after the university published an active shooting alert at noon, saying that the police reacted near the student union.
Ryan Cedergren, a 21 -year -old student in communication, said that he and around 30 others hid in the bowling alley at the lower level of the union after seeing students run from a neighboring bar.
“At that time, it was survival,” he said.
People comfort themselves on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee, where the police responded to an active shooter incident reported on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP photo / Kate Payne).
After about 15 minutes, university police escorted students outside the building and saw a person receiving emergency treatment on the lawn, he said.
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Chris Pento told WCTV in Tallahassee that he and his twins were lunch at the student union during a tour of campus when they heard shots.
“It was surreal. And people just started running,” he told the television channel.
They were packed in a service elevator after meeting doors locked at the end of a corridor. “It was probably the most scary because we didn’t know. It could get worse, right? ” He said. “The doors opened and two officers were there, shotguns.”
Florida’s state alert system announced about three hours after the shooting that the police had “neutralized the threat”.
The officials asked students and teachers to avoid the student union and other areas that were still considered an active crime scene.
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including a legal van, were parked outside the student union. The police blocked the area with a crime stage cassette.
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including a legal van, are parked outside the Florida State University Student Union building, the place of a shooting on Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Tallahassee, in Florida (AP photo / Kate Payne).
Students and staff who left phones, keys and other evacuation articles waited in the shade and prayed for the victims.
President Donald Trump said in the oval office that he had been fully informed of the shooting. “This is a horrible thing. It’s horrible that things like this happen,” he said.
After receiving warning from an active shooter, students and teachers covered themselves and waited in classrooms, offices and dormitories across the campus.
The first thing you think is just: “it can’t be true”, right? Said Kai McGalla, a second year student who spoke by phone when he was locked in a campus test center.
Junior Joshua Sirmans, 20, was part of the main library when the alarms started. The law enforcement officers escorted her as well as other students from the library with their hands above their heads, he said.
The Florida State University is one of the 12 public universities in Florida, with its main campus in Tallahassee. About 44,000 students are registered at the university, according to the school information sheet in 2024.
In 2014, the main library was the site of a shooting that injured three people. The police pulled and killed the shooter, Myron May, 31 years old.
The university has canceled all courses and events for Thursday. He also canceled sports events at home until Sunday.
Fischer reported Fort Lauderdale. The journalists of the Associated Press Stephany Matat in West Palm Beach, Curt Anderson in Saint Petersburg, Michael Schneider in Orlando, Mike Balsamo in New York, Eric Tucker and Christopher Megerian in Washington and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press