The Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee is calling for prayers following an April 17 mass shooting at Florida State University’s main campus in Tallahassee, while a campus Catholic ministry was sheltering students and staff amid the lockdown.
At least two people have died, with several individuals receiving medical treatment, following gunfire that broke out sometime around 12 p.m. in the school’s student union.
Earlier media reports advised that at least six persons had been injured, with one in critical condition and five in serious condition.
One person is reported to have been taken into custody.
The campus remains on lockdown as law enforcement conducts a sweep of the premises. The FBI, state and local law enforcement agencies are investigating.
“We’ve been helping students to shelter here,” said a staff member at the school’s Catholic Student Union, known as Catholic Noles. “A lot of students are obviously very flustered.”
Several people on site at Catholic Noles had been celebrating a staffer’s birthday when the shooting began, she told OSV News.
Catholic Noles is part of the parish of the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee, located “right up the hill” from FSU’s student union, she said.
“It’s very close; students walk all the time,” she said.
The Catholic Noles staffer told OSV News that “cop cars were lining the street,” with “people kind of just running all over the place.”
The church — which she explained was not under lockdown, since it is not on the FSU campus — was “opened up … to allow people to seek shelter,” with “even some of the staff from the student union” heading to the cathedral.
Priests are “walking around and chatting with people” in the church, she said.
With Holy Thursday’s liturgy just a few hours away, “I think we might have a larger crowd at tonight’s Mass,” she added.
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