When the gunman (identified as Phoenix Ickner) shot through Florida State University, five people were hospitalized before he was shot and injured by local law enforcement.
After the gunfire broke out, the campus was locked, and students flocked to the moment after the shooting occurred at lunchtime, and the students were ordered to shelter.
Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil told reporter Ikner that he is a student at the university and the son of a “special” member of his 18-year year.
“Unfortunately, her son could use one of the weapons found on the scene.
He added that the suspect was part of the sheriff’s office training program, meaning “it’s not surprising for us that he can use weapons.”
Ikner was taken to the hospital after being shot. His condition was not immediately known.
Bystander video aired by CNN appears to show a young man walking on the lawn and shooting at someone trying to escape.
Witnesses talked about the chaos as people began to cross the vast campus as the footage began to ring near the student union.
“Everyone is just starting to run out of the student union,” a witness named Wayne told local news station WCTV.
“About a minute later, we heard about eight to 10 gunshots.”
Witnesses said he saw a man who appeared to have been shot in the middle.
“The whole thing is surreal. I can’t believe what I’ve seen.
“Everything is quieter than all the chaos.”
“Let them take their time”
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Police said the two dead were not students but refused to provide more details.
The university, a public institution with more than 40,000 students, canceled all courses and told students who do not reside on campus to leave.
FSU president Richard McCullough said the university is working to support those affected by the attack.
“It was a tragic day for Florida State University,” he said.
“We are absolutely sad about the violence that happened on our campus earlier today.”
Student Sam Swartz told Tallahassee Democrats that he had been in the student union’s basement when the shooting began.
“Everyone started to frighten,” Swatz said, adding that he heard about 10 photos.
A group of eight people crowded in the corridor, blocking themselves with trash cans and plywood.
“I remember learning to try to make them take some time,” Swatts said, adding that the mass shooter “just wanted to get as many people as possible.”
Videos on social media show a group of young people walking through the corridor in the air while evacuating the building.
Mass shootings are common in the United States, where constitutional rights to constitutional weapons outweigh stricter rules.
Despite tighter public control over guns, including limiting the sale of high-capacity clips and limiting the availability of automatic war weapons.
President Donald Trump called the shooting “a terrible, terrible thing” but insisted that Americans should keep unrestricted gun opportunities.
“I’m a big advocate for the Second Amendment. I’ve been protected from the very beginning,” he said.
“These things are bad, but the guns aren’t shooting – people do that.”
Statistics from the nonprofit gun violence archive show that there have been at least 81 mass shootings in the United States so far this year (defined as four or more people being shot dead).
