TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – An active shooter incident occurred at Florida State University in Tallahassee on Thursday, and unfortunately, it’s not the first time a shooting has occurred on the university’s campus.
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Twelve years ago, on Nov. 20, 2014, Tallahassee police received a call around 12:30 a.m. about an “armed subject” at FSU’s Strozier Library, where three people had been shot.
The suspect, later identified as 31-year-old Myron May, was approached by police officers who ordered him to drop his weapon, which was revealed to be a .380 semiautomatic handgun, police said.
“The suspect did not comply with the commands and shot at the officers,” a spokesman for the Tallahassee Police Department said. “They returned fire, and the suspect was killed.”
According to reports, May was an FSU grad who also spent time in law school at Texas Tech University. He then served as a lawyer in Texas and New Mexico before moving back to Florida.
Officials said May’s diary indicated he was in “a state of crisis” and “expressed fears of being targeted” by the government.
The shooting hit Seminole Nation hard, as the following days included vigils full of students who were processing the traumatic event.
“It is just so surreal, I kept hoping this was just a dream,” an FSU student said to News4JAX in 2014. “We were running around making sure everyone was okay.”
At other vigils, students could be heard singing the “Hymn to the Garnet and Gold,” hollering the school’s war chant, and reminding others that although the school has thousands of students, it’s a small community that will be there for one another.
Now, a familiar shock has hit FSU’s campus as students will deal with Thursday’s tragic event.
A similar tragedy also occurred a little over one mile away from FSU at Florida A&M University in 2022, when a man opened fire at a basketball court, killing one person and injuring four more.
