TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Blake Leonard is a first-year scholar at Florida State College.
He stated, what began as a forgotten espresso, resulted in a harrowing escape.
Two people were killed, six were injured, and a suspect was taken into custody after an lively shooter was reported at Florida State College.
The reported shooter was positioned Thursday within the space of Pupil Union, the place a Tallahassee Police spokesperson stated officers confronted him and opened fireplace after he refused their instructions.
The suspect, recognized as 20-year-old Pheonix Ikner, the son of a Leon County deputy, was then taken into custody and transported to a hospital.
Leonard stated Thursday began out like every other day.
He defined that, round lunchtime, he was on the Thagard constructing when he realized he forgot his espresso on the Pupil Union.
So, he rotated.
Moments later, Leonard stated he was working for his life.
“I heard about 12 pictures go off, and I regarded behind me to ensure I am listening to what I am listening to and it isn’t like development or one thing,” he defined. “I began listening to individuals depart the union, like sprinting out of the union, simply attempting to get to security.”
Leonard stated, inside seconds, he was sprinting too.
“I am working too, as a result of I am not attempting to get…,” he stated. “I do not know the place the shooter goes to be going; I do not know the place he’s particularly, I simply know I heard pictures, and I see individuals working away.”
Information Channel 8 reporter Nicole Rogers requested Leonard, “At what level do you know they have been gunshots?”
“I do know what gunshots sound like, and in my head I am like, these are gunshots,” he defined. “However I do know development goes on on a regular basis.”
“So, after I regarded backwards within the space the place I noticed gunshots from, after I noticed individuals working out, I used to be like, there isn’t any query, these have been gunshots,” Leonard continued.
He defined to eight On Your Facet, that is one thing he by no means thought would occur to him.
“It is simply so surreal, and everybody in misery,” Leonard described. “That is actually the one method I can describe it.”
“It is loopy, like one thing you’d see out of a film,” he continued. “It is so surreal.”
“You see on Instagram and all the pieces of different faculties and all the pieces, however you by no means assume it is really going to be your faculty,” Leonard defined. “That it might really be FSU.”
Now, Florida State college students are transferring ahead.
With a vigil deliberate for Saturday night, Leonard stated, the capturing’s affect on Tallahassee is much from over.
“Individuals are terrified,” he stated. “As I received again on campus, individuals have been packing their baggage, leaving.”
