A gunman opened fire inside a Florida State University library early Thursday, injuring three students before campus police swarmed into the Strozier Library and shot the suspect dead, officials said. Police are investigating the shooter's motive, ABC News reported.
The alleged gunman, identified as Myron May, was a lawyer who had graduated from FSU, law enforcement told ABC News.
While two of the three victims suffered gunshot wounds and were transported to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, the third student was released from medics' care after being treated on scene for a graze wound, the hospital told the Tallahassee Democrat. One of the victims, however, remains in critical condition, police said at a Thursday press conference.
"The three students who have been injured are our highest priority," FSU President John Thrasher said in a statement, adding that further details on the identities of the victims would not be immediately released.
Around 12:30 a.m. Thursday, students reported hearing multiple shots fired in the library, sending between 300 and 400 students studying for upcoming final exams running for their lives and cowering behind bookshelves, NBC News reported.
"It was a consecutive bop, bop, bop, bop, bop," said freshman Nikolai Hernandez, who was in his dorm room across from the library when he heard five or six rapid gunshots.
"We heard the gunshots and then it was in a matter of seconds the entire first floor just seemed to go into chaos," Lauren, who was in the library at the time of the shooting, told CNN. "It was very scary."
Soon after midnight, FSU police officers responded to the scene by confronting the armed attacker outside the library, ordered him to drop his weapon, and then shot the suspect when he attempted to fire at them, police said.
"This person for whatever reason produced a handgun and then began shooting students in the library," Florida State University Police Chief David Perry told reporters at a morning news conference.
The university issued an emergency alert warning students and staff to seek shelter and stay away from doors and windows, which led to several tense hours of uncertainty playing out on social media.
"There has been a shooting at the library," Tallahassee police can be heard announcing in a video posted to Facebook by Jessica Davis as a group of students huddle in the library stacks. "Stay where you are. We'll be coming to each floor and clearing it and taking care of anybody."
Meanwhile, classes were canceled on Thursday while campus security was heightened, according to 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," Thrasher, the university president, said in his statement. "We are increasing security measures and providing a strong law enforcement presence on and around campus today."
Florida State, which has an enrollment of 41,000 students and is less than a mile from the state capitol building, is home to the NCAA defending national champion football program.
Last month, a 15-year-old gunman killed four other students in the cafeteria of a Seattle-area high school before turning the gun on himself.
"We are too frequently and too often waking up to incidences like this around the country," Tallahassee Mayor-elect Andrew Gillum said at the news conference.
