A student who had been inside the main library at Florida State University when shots rang out says that God saved him.

21-year-old Jason Derfuss wrote about the incident in his Facebook page.

“The shooter targeted me first,” he wrote. “The shot I heard behind me I did not feel, nor did it hit me at all.  He was about 5 feet from me, but he hit my books.  Books one minute earlier I had checked out of the library, books that should not have stopped the bullet. But they did.”

Police killed the gunman when he refused to put down his weapon.  Three students were wounded including one that remains in critical condition.

“There is no way I should be alive,” Derfuss told NBC News. “It’s crazy: One minute I am checking out books, and the next I am crying on my bedroom floor thinking I shouldn’t be alive. Those books saved me, and God saved me.”

“The Florida State University community is extremely saddened by the shootings that took place early this morning at Strozier Library, in the very heart of campus, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of all those who have been affected,” university President John Thrasher wrote in a statement on Thursday. “The three students who have been injured are our highest priority followed by the needs of our greater university community. We will do everything possible to assist with their recovery.”