18/04/2025
Florida College Shooting: Man Allegedly Used Motherâs Police-Issued Gun to Kill Two, Authoriate University Shooting: Suspect Used Officer Mother's Gun, Killed Two, Authorities Say
Tallahassee, FL â A gunman used a firearm belonging to his mother, a law enforcement officer, to fatally shoot two people at Florida State University (FSU), authorities said Thursday. A shotgun was also recovered at the scene.
Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil confirmed the suspect was a âlongstanding memberâ of the departmentâs youth advisory council and had participated in several law enforcement training programs.
âSo it is not a surprise that he had access to weapons,â McNeil stated during a press briefing.
The suspect, who has not been publicly named by police, reportedly took part in a campus demonstration against President Donald Trumpâs inauguration in 2017, according to the student-run FSUNews.com. The outlet has since removed a past quote from the suspect, adding an editorâs note explaining their decision not to amplify his voice.
The university said police responded to reports of an active shooter around midday local time. An emergency alert urged students and staff to "seek shelter and await further instructions."
Student Ava Arenado told CBS News Miami that her class was first alerted when a fellow student received the emergency notification. Another student, Blake Leonard, described hearing roughly a dozen gunshots before seeing crowds running from the student union.
âAt first, I thought it was construction noise,â Leonard said. âThen I saw people running and heard another round of shotsâabout 12 to 15 moreâso I ran too.â
President Donald Trump, who was briefed on the shooting ahead of a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, called the event âa shame, a horrible thing.â When asked about potential changes to gun laws, Trump reiterated his support for the Second Amendment.
âIâve protected it since the beginning,â he said. âThese things are terrible. We will have more to say about it later.â
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis offered his condolences, stating, âOur prayers are with our FSU family, and state law enforcement is actively responding.â
This is not the first shooting at FSU. In 2015, a gunman opened fire at the campus library, injuring three people before being fatally shot by police.
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the 2018 Parkland High School shooting, said some of her surviving classmates were on campus during Thursdayâs violence.
âIncredibly, some of them were just a part of their second school shooting,â Guttenberg wrote on X (formerly Twitter), noting that several had been at the student union during the attack
