World
India
In a harrowing incident at Florida State University (FSU) on Thursday, students were forced to rely on quick thinking and presence of mind as a mass shooting unfolded on campus. With two dead and at least six injured, the tragic episode exposed the harsh realities students face during such crises.
Gum, Grit and Survival Instincts
As gunshots rang out near the Student Union around 11:20 am ET, students scrambled for safety. Inside one classroom, Jeffrey LaFray and his classmates worked with their teacher to block the shooter’s view. Lacking tape to cover the windows, they resorted to chewing gum to stick paper over the glass.
“The teacher was asking if any of us had tape to tape up some paper. And no one had tape, so some of us just got out our gum and started chewing,” LaFray told ABC’s Good Morning America.
Elsewhere on campus, Madison Askins, a graduate student, was shot in the back while walking with a friend. She survived by pretending to be dead. “I fell to the ground, kept my eyes shut, and played dead… I released all the muscles in my body and held my breath,” she recalled. Askins stayed still even as she heard the shooter reload his weapon.
The suspect, 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner—son of a Leon County Sheriff’s deputy—was eventually shot and apprehended by police. He is believed to have used his mother’s firearm during the attack. The university was placed on lockdown until around 3 pm EDT, with the area near the shooting cordoned off for investigation.
