Campus police shoot dead attacker after he opens fire in university library with up to 400 students inside

A gunman who opened fire at a campus library at Florida State University was shot dead by police after wounding three students, police in Tallahassee said.

Hundreds of students studying for exams fled or tried to hide around 12.30am on Thursday, when a gunman entered the library and opened fire. An officer responded to an emergency call and confronted the gunman near the entrance, ordering him to drop his weapon. The gunman fired a shot and police returned fire, fatally wounding the suspect, Tallahassee police spokesman David Northway said during an early morning press briefing.



“This person for whatever reason produced a handgun and then began shooting students in the library,” campus police chief David Perry said. Perry estimated that between 300 and 400 students were inside the library when the gunman opened fire.

“Everyone wants to know why, and that’s the hard question we are going to continue to investigate,” Tallahassee police chief Michael DeLeo said. Mayor-elect Andrew Gillum, also at the conference, said: “We are too frequently and too often waking up to incidences like this around the country.”

University president John Thrasher said called the shooting an “isolated incident” and said in a statement authorities assured him “there is no further threat”.

Three students suffered gunshot wounds, and two were taken to Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare hospital. One of those students is in critical condition, a hospital spokesperson told Reuters.

“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.”

School administrators locked down the school during the police response and has cancelled Thursday classes, but campus will remain open, and the vice-president of student affairs said the school is offering counseling services for students.

Students described scenes of panic and fear on social media after police evacuated the building. Video posted online showed students huddled behind the stacks as police took over the library intercom, telling students: “There has been a shooting in the library. Stay where you are, we’ll be coming to each floor and clearing and taking care of anybody … if anybody has been shot, call 911 on your cellphone.” Photos showed how students barricaded doors with tables and chairs, or and how police cleared each floor.

Daniel Morales (@danymorales1995) Everything is safe right now. Shooter was killed and few students injured. Getting evacuated right now. #fsu pic.twitter.com/FLUV2WjwEh

Blair Stokes (@blairstokes) Cops clearing 4th floor now. Officer Garcia from TPD leading us. Searching us. pic.twitter.com/amk03lmTRd

Senior Sarah Evans, inside the library during the shooting, told the Associated Press that she heard a student say he’d been shot and saw blood pooling in his pant leg. A freshman, Allison Kope, said: “You never think something like this is going to happen until you have to react in that situation, when someone is screaming ‘There’s a gun in the building.’ I ran for my life … It was shock. It was just instinct.”

Student Guillermo Page told ABC that the library was “total chaos”. “A kid who was up with me told me he had walked past the shooter … He saw him pull out his gun and that’s when he ran upstairs.”

Nikolai Hernandez, a freshman, told the AP he was in his dormitory across from the library when he heard gunshots.

“It was a consecutive bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. I was supposed to be in the library. I had a paper to do and I got a little bit lazy and decided not to do it.”

At about 4am campus police announced the danger over and the campus all-clear.

John Ehab, a sophomore from Tampa, said he was on the library’s third floor when he heard multiple gunshots.