“We heard about eight at ten gunshots”
The Florida State University, which has 40,000 students, had reported the presence of “a shooter” on the campus around midday. The establishment immediately advised all its students to shelter where they could, while the area was secure.
“We have six patients, including one in critical condition and the others in serious condition,” linked to the shooting, told AFP a spokesperson for Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, attached by phone.
Several students testified to the panic that seized the campus, when shots sounded near the student associative office.
“Everyone started running out of” the building, said Wayne, a young man interviewed by the local WCTV channel.
“About a minute later, we heard about eight to ten shots,” he added.
The young man said he saw another student hit in the stomach.
“All of this was completely surreal. I couldn’t believe what I saw,” he said.
Another student, Sam Swartz was in the basement of the associative office when the shots broke out.
“Everyone started to panic,” he told Tallahassee Democrat, also saying that he had heard a dozen shots.
Eight people, who worked on a project, gathered in a corridor and barricaded themselves with garbage cans and plywood panels, he said.
The Republican Governor of Florida Ron Desantis addressed his “prayers” for the Florida State University, in a message on X.
With more firearms in circulation than residents, the United States displayed the highest firearm mortality rate in all developed countries.
The shootings are a recurring scourge that successive governments have so far failed to stem, many Americans remaining very attached to their arms.
In the United States, the right to wearing a weapon is protected by the second amendment to the Constitution.
In 2024, more than 16,000 people, not to mention suicides, were killed by firearm, according to the NGO Gun Violence Archive.
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