TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – For students at Florida State University, the sounds of last Thursday’s shooting still echo in their minds.
“My one friend was on campus,” FSU Senior Mya Helhoski recounted. “She heard the shots, and so she immediately was texting us, and that was very hard to read.”
Sophomore Isabella Del Re said dealing with all the rumors that were circulating at the time of the shooting also made the situation more difficult.
“I heard that there were like, up to seven shooters at one point. I heard that like 50 people were like, passed and that like, hundreds of people were like hurt,” Del Re said.
Two people lost their lives that day, and six others were injured when a man started shooting near FSU’s Student Union.
In the following hours, the campus was cleared out, and students were seen rolling out with their luggage, unsure when or if they’d return.
Twenty-four hours later, Tallahassee Memorial Health Care shared what they experienced as they took in the victims.
The following Monday, FSU began waiving attendance, offering mental health support, and giving students space to process as they returned to class.
Now, one week later, five of the six victims are out of the hospital, funeral arrangements have been made for shooting victims Robert Morales and Tiru Chabba, and, slowly, signs of healing are starting to show on campus.
“There’s a sense of family on the campus and throughout Tallahassee,” Helhoski said. “It’s bringing us together in an unexpected, but like, very beautiful way.
To help lift spirits, FSU has been hosting free events, like a recent baseball game where free food was offered. Additionally, vigils and memorials have popped up across campus, and some businesses in the community have even held moments of silence.
Isabella Del Re and Mya Helhoski say it’s been small, but all the actions are important steps toward a return to normalcy.
“There have been all sorts of different zoo animals out on the different student centers for you to go pet,” Helhoski notes. “They’ve been having like, mental health sections where you can draw in color, or, like, do a craft, just meet with other students. They’ve been handing out snacks and waters, and like, allowing the students to go to these places and reflect on what happened.”
Both Helhoski and Del Re said the incident has heightened their awareness and forced them to become more vigilant.
“It kind of just like is in the back of my mind,” Helhoski explained. “I, you know, I had friends who were hearing the sirens and hearing, you know, all of these things firsthand. And so, like, definitely, for the first couple of days, like a siren goes by and everybody’s heart kind of stops.”
The shooting has also prompted many students to call for change, including a petition to install locks on all classroom doors.
“I would like to see more police presence, and even, like, maybe gating in the community, like the campus a little bit, and having, like, key cards, because it’s so open,” Del Re said.
In the face of tragedy, FSU students and faculty are choosing to lean on each other and move forward, one step at a time.