The shock and sadness was palpable as students began to gather near Florida State University’s student union building as the sun set Thursday evening.
Birds chirped softly as dozens of students and young adults quietly clung to each other around a makeshift memorial that grew on the sidewalk leading to what was a gruesome and tragic scene just a few hours earlier.
Some came alone. Others wandered over in pairs or with groups of friends. Many brought flowers, balloons and teddy bears. Others left letters and lit candles to honor the victims and comfort the survivors.
Eddie Burnham, a first-year student and finance major, was among those drawn back to the scene. He left flowers and a Seminole flag.
“I just want to just display Seminole pride,” the 18-year-old Burnham said with tears streaming down his cheeks. “We’re all Seminoles, we’re all together in this. We’re all going to uplift each other and we’re all going to get through this tough time together.”
Burnham was in a building nearby when he heard the shots Thursday afternoon. He and a handful of students barricaded themselves in the room until the police found them hiding there half an hour later and told them it was safe to leave.
Police say 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, an FSU student and the son of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy, fired on at least eight people outside the student union building. Two people, who authorities say were not students, were killed and six others were injured.
The shooter was also injured and is in custody.
Twenty-year-old Makenna Ellenburg brought flowers. Although she attends Tallahassee State College, she has friends who go to FSU and she often visits the campus.
She came to be with them and show her support.
“It just hits so close to home, especially because I go on daily walks around campus all the time and we meet friends at the Union all the time,” Ellenburg said. “It’s crazy to believe this actually happened. I know it seems so surreal.”
FSU student Fransico Davila, 21, heard about the shooting from his roommate who texted him while it was happening and wanted to make sure his friend was OK.
Davila, who grew up in Ocala, said it’s the second school shooting for his friends who attended Forest High School when a man fired a gun through a door and injured a student in 2018.
“I was in the area dropping somebody off and just felt compelled to come take a look,” Davila said. “I saw the messages on social media and the posts of people leaving flowers. I honestly came empty handed and there was a kind girl named Sydney who gave me a rose to put down. When lives are taken, it’s something that can’t ever be undone.”
FSU students feared the unknown
For FSU junior Hayden Tyler, one of the most agonizing parts was the unknown. It was the anxious texts from her sister who was hunkered down in a classroom for what seemed like hours, as Tyler made promises she didn’t know she could keep of making it out OK. The thought of losing her sister, who was the driving reason she enrolled at FSU, was enough to collapse her into a friend’s shoulders in tears even hours later.
Dread filled her apartment as time slowly ticked on to the never-ending shrill of sirens just outside her window before getting the all-clear to vacate.
Meanwhile, rumors swirled across campus about the possibility, later proven false, that the shooter was not acting alone. There was no safe zone or sense of security even from the confinement of indoors.
“My sister thought there was one (shooter) near her,” Tyler said of a rumored second shooter. “I couldn’t go get her…The worst part was not knowing.”
Then there was the student body’s social media storm that followed, which for many students, student Kaylie Hoane said, was the most traumatizing part.
Students were opening their phones to find raw footage of bleeding bodies on the ground, articles of clothing and papers strewn through the streets from fleeing students and staff who left them behind in a mad dash.
“It was really hard to see that,” Hoane said of the footage. “There’s a lot of people that are traumatized from this.”
Florida State University students found comfort together
Even though Tyler’s sister was safe, she was still moved to bring flowers and pray at the campus student-organized vigil.
“You didn’t have to know the people to feel for them,” Tyler said.
That’s the thing she doesn’t want to be lost on the nation who is looking in at the caution tape-lined remnants of their once serene campus. Even in tragedy, they were able to come together, stand together and mourn together around the growing mound of flowers and mementos.
“I know it’s going to bring us together and prove how supportive our student body is,” Tyler said.
FSU Seniors Lily Zeras and McKinley Libby shared that same feeling of uncertainty throughout the campus-wide lockdown. But they knew one thing with certainty when it was all over − they wanted to be together.
They waited for a group of 14 other friends, suitcases rolled onto an empty patio of a usually bustling Collegetown. As campus cleared out for students to make their way home to their families, the friends chose to find comfort in the family they found within one another in their final weeks together before graduation.
After securing an Airbnb in a beach town two hours away, they quickly packed their bags and gathered together to vacate.
“We know the emotions are high,” Zeras said. “We would rather be together.”
Libby said their time at FSU has been filled with nothing but good memories, which is why it was so shocking to see the active shooter alerts popping up on their phones, leading them to frantically text their group texts and barricade in their bathrooms. Relief came flooding in as one by one their friends confirmed their locations and their safety.
“We were scared for our lives,” Zeras said.
They were afraid to leave their apartments until the official press conference that came late in the afternoon, confirming the sole suspected shooter was detained.
“It definitely came out of nowhere,” Zeras said. “No one would expect this to happen.”
Zeras and her friends are in their last two weeks of their final semester on campus before they graduate.
Others have to make a decision for the future − stay or go.
Freshman Eddie Burnham vowed they aren’t going to let the violence tarnish the good memories they’ve already made and plan to keep making.
“It’s just frustrating knowing that these shootings keep happening,” Burnham said. “I’ve always wanted to come here. I had a great time so far and despite all this, I’m just going to try and uplift myself, and do my best to uplift all my fellow peers, staff and people around me. It’s going to be hard, but I will do everything I can.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida State University shooting: FSU students gather for memorial