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.”
A gunman who was slain by police shot three students shortly after midnight Thursday at Florida State University’s main library.
Police say that hundreds of students were studying for exams at Strozier Library when the gunman began his attack. The assailant was shot when he refused to drop his weapon.
The gunman has been identified as Myron May, a lawyer who graduated from FSU before attending Texas Tech University law school and being admitted to the Texas State Bar in 2010. He had been working as “in-house counsel” for a children’s home in the area.
“He’s just a boy our kids grew up with that we let stay in one of our guest houses for a while,” Abigail Taunton, who runs the home, told the Associated Press. “He’s moving back home from Texas and we were trying to help him get on his feet.”
“This person just for whatever reason produced a handgun and then began shooting students in the library,” FSU Police Chief David Perry said. Perry characterized the shooting as an “isolated incident” but did not release many details.
A student opened fire in the cafeteria of his Washington state high school on Friday, killing a classmate and wounding at least four others before he was killed amid the chaos of students scrambling to safety, authorities said.
All of the victims were young people, and three were in critical condition with gunshot wounds to the head and in surgery, said Joanne Roberts, chief of medicine at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett.
The fourth wounded victim suffered less serious injuries in the gunfire at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, about 30 miles north of Seattle, and had been transferred to another hospital. Two of the victims were male and two female, hospital officials said.
Source: Reuters – Two dead, four wounded after student opens fire Washington state school
A professor at Seattle Pacific University told students Thursday night that the campus shooting that left a student dead and two others seriously injured was not God’s will for their school.
“There’s no explaining it,” Professor of Biblical Studies Frank Spina told students. “‘This is not God’s plan. This is not God’s will. This is not God’s way of teaching us a lesson. Any lesson we could have learned out of this could have been learned otherwise.”
Police say the shooting would have been significantly worse if not for the heroic efforts of a student who pepper sprayed the shooter then disarmed him as he tried to reload.
Jon Meis, a 22-year-old Christian engineering student and teaching assistant, noticed the gunman reloading and made his move. Friends say that Meis has always been “quiet and religious” and that his actions to stop the gunman showed in action his beliefs in being a “selfless, courageous man.”
Meis was taken the hospital for minor injuries after the altercation and has not spoken to the press. His family’s answering machine has a message asking those who call to pray for the victims and their families.
Four people are dead and two injured after a pair of anti-semitic attacks in Europe.
The deadly attack came in Brussels, Belgium, where a gunman walked into a Jewish museum and opened fire. The gunman reportedly double parked his car outside the museum, casually strolled inside and opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle.
The gunman had clearly been planning the attack according to police officials who saw the security footage. The gunman walked in and out within a minute, obviously executing some kind of timed attack. Witnesses say the gunman jogged to his car and causally pulled away.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but the terrorism alert level in Belgium has been raised because of the assault.
Hours later in Paris, two Jewish youths leaving a service at a synagogue were attacked by men on bikes. The 21-year-old and 18-year-old brothers were beaten heavily with brass knuckles and are hospitalized in serious condition but are believed to make a full recovery.
A man with a long record of hatred toward Jews is under arrest after killing three people outside two Jewish facilities in the Kansas City area.
Frazier Glenn Miller, 73, is facing at least three counts of murder after the shootings at a Jewish community center and Jewish retirement center in Overland Park, KS. Miller is a resident of Aurora, Missouri, 190 miles from the site of the shootings and police have not speculated why Miller chose these particular locations.
Two of those killed were a grandfather and his 14-year-old grandson, both of whom were Christians but not Jewish. The two were at the community center so that the grandson could audition for “KC SuperStar”, a singing competition for students.
Miller is a former grand wizard for the KKK and ran for Congress in 2006 and 2010 on platforms of white supremacy that included many anti-Semitic claims.
Police would not confirm a hate crime motive even though Miller was yelling “Heil Hitler” as he was driven off in a police car after his arrest and the start of the Jewish Passover the following day.
A gunman who was being treated for depression and anxiety and was being tested for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder opened fire with a handgun at Fort Hood in Texas Wednesday, killing 3 people and wounding 16.
Some of the wounded are in very critical condition at area hospitals and it’s possible the death toll could rise.
Spc. Ivan Lopez, 34, committed suicide when a military police officer confronted him.
Lopez opened fire inside one building, climbed in a vehicle and shot at people as he drove to a second building where he shot more victims.
Military officials say that Lopez did not see combat during his time in Iraq. They said that he was a truck driver at the time forces were withdrawing from the country. They insisted that even though he was not in combat, it is still possible he was suffering from PTSD.
Lopez reportedly lost his mother in November and he was having trouble dealing with the loss. He leaves behind a wife and 3-year-old daughter.
The gunman who walked into a Maryland shopping mall and shot two people inside a skateboard store reportedly was just looking to kill.
Police say that Darion Aguilar had a journal where he wrote that he was looking to kill people and that he was ready to die. The journal didn’t name anyone specifically that Aguilar wanted to kill but he mentioned having a “general hatred of others.”
He also wrote in the journal that he needed to seek help from a mental health professional but that he had not talked with his family about that need.
Detectives who have been going through Aguilar’s computer, cell phone and journal say that there is absolutely no connection to the two people he gunned down. There is also nothing that indicates why he chose the skateboard shop Zumiez for his rampage.
Police released new information yesterday that said Aguilar assembled his shotgun in the dressing room of the store and then opened fire.
An eighth grade social studies teacher at Berrendo Middle School in Roswell, New Mexico is being hailed as a hero for stepping in front of the gunman who wounded two students in a shooting Tuesday.
John Masterson stepped in front of the gunman after he started firing in the gym with a 20-gauge sawed-off shotgun.
“He stood there and allowed the gun to be pointed right at him so there would be no more young kids hurt,” Gov. Susana Martinez told a prayer vigil Tuesday.
Two students were wounded in the shooting. Kendal Sanders, 13, is hospitalized in serious condition and her family told reporters that she is improving. An 11-year-old boy is in critical condition after two surgeries and hospital officials have not updated his condition.
Police authorities have said they do not know the motive for the shooting but discovered that the shooter apparently warned other students to stay home Tuesday.
A gunman opened fire at a New Jersey mall Monday night before hiding in a back room and killing himself.
Richard Shoop, 20, was found near 3:30 a.m. in a distant part of the Westfield Garden State Plaza mall.
Shoop had fired at least six shots without hitting anyone in the mall causing the entire building to go into lockdown for hours. Thousands of shoppers were trapped inside businesses while police searched store to store for the shooter who reportedly was wearing black body armor.
Police suspected this was a case of what they call “suicide by cop” where someone waves a gun around in an attempt to get police to kill them. The police cited the fact Shoop fired at random and at security cameras rather than people.
Shoop had a note on his claiming that “the end was near.”
