The Florida State University gunman who opened fire inside a library early Thursday and injured three students before campus police shot him dead believed the government was targeting him for surveillance, according to details uncovered from his journal and videos by detectives, the Associated Press reported.
Myron May, 31, a lawyer who graduated from FSU in 2005, had "expressed fears of being targeted and that he wanted to bring attention to this issue of targeting," said Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo.
"Mr. May's sense of being and place in our community was not what most people would refer to as a normal," DeLeo continued. "He had a sense of crisis and he was searching for something."
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.
Soon after midnight, FSU police officers responded to the scene by confronting the armed attacker outside the library, ordered him to drop his .380 semi-automatic pistol, and then fatally shot the suspect when he attempted to fire at them, police said.
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.
Reportedly, there had been signs of trouble before Thursday's shooting occurred, police in Las Cruces, N.M., said.
Last month, former girlfriend Danielle Nixon filed a harassment complaint against May, stating that he had barged into her home claiming to be a victim of police surveillance, the AP reported. The 31-year-old believed his car and home had been bugged by authorities, Nixon said, adding that May had recently developed "a severe mental disorder."
"Myron began to ramble and handed her a piece to a car and asked her to keep it because this was a camera that police had put in his vehicle," a police report said.
However, friends described May, who had just returned to Florida about three weeks ago for a new start, as sweet, smart and understanding.
"His fraternity nickname was 'Sensitive Joe' and it was fitting," said state Rep. Matt Gaetz, who belonged to the same Florida State political club as May. "I was so surprised that someone with this docile nature would have something happen in their lives that would have this outcome."
"He was having some financial issues and moved back home and decided he'd come back to Florida to work," said Abigail Taunton, who knew May as a teenager after he moved to Florida to live with his grandmother due to having problems with his parents in Ohio. "My heart's broken. In a million years I wouldn't have thought he'd do something like this. He was struggling, having decided that what he was doing out there was not good. He had some issues and just decided he'd come home."
May, who was licensed to practice law in Texas and New Mexico and Taunton, had been preparing to take the Florida bar exam in February. According to police records, the 31-year-old did not have a criminal record with either Tallahassee police or the Leon County Sheriff's Office.
