How a security gap at FSU heightened students’ fears even with the speedy police response
CNN
Meghan Bannister put on a dress for class, a choice befitting the warm weather in Tallahassee. Thursday stood out as her last day of class before graduation but by noon, the Florida State University senior had to grapple with the chilling reality of a gunman opening fire on the sprawling campus.
Meghan Bannister put on a dress for class, a choice befitting the warm weather in Tallahassee. Thursday stood out as her last day of class before graduation but by noon, the Florida State University senior had to grapple with the chilling reality of a gunman opening fire on the sprawling campus. Bannister had been practicing active shooter drills since she was in fourth grade and had heard the horror stories from her friends who experienced the 2018 Parkland high school massacre. So, when they heard the shots, she and her classmates from all different states knew exactly what to do as the school went on lockdown. “We sent desks to either door, we sat up against the wall altogether. We held hands, the lights came off, we fell silent, we prayed. It’s so sad that everyone knew how to act,” Bannister told CNN. Students all over campus hid under desks, barricaded doors and texted loved ones as emergency sirens wailed in the background. Within four minutes after the first shot was fired, the suspected gunman, FSU student Phoenix Ikner, 20, was shot by police and taken into custody, authorities said. Thousands of students and staff received emergency alerts about the attack and went into lockdown. Two men working near the student union were killed and five others were wounded in the shooting. Another person was injured while trying to run away, police said. The hospital declined to say whether Ikner was one of their patients. Law enforcement officers responded just two minutes after the first 911 call reported the shooting, authorities said. University officials, along with law enforcement and school safety preparedness experts credit the rapid response from police and timely messages through the school’s emergency alert system for preventing an even greater tragedy.
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