Authorities: Shooter thought government was out to get him

Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.

Authorities don’t know why Myron May targeted his alma mater Thursday when he opened fire on students at Florida State University’s library, but they do know he thought the government was watching him and out to get him.

Or, as Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo said, his sense of being was not normal.

“Mr. May had a written journal and videos where he expressed fears of being targeted and that he wanted to bring attention to this issue of targeting,” DeLeo said. “Mr. May was in a state of crisis.”

Police killed May, a 2005 graduate who later earned a law degree from Texas Tech University, early Thursday. Officers had responded to a 12:30 a.m. call about shots being fired at the library, where about 450 students were studying. When police arrived, May had wounded two students and an employee and reloaded a .380 semi-automatic pistol. He refused to put the gun down, and they opened fire. More than 30 rounds were fired by May and the officers.

Police said May didn’t get past the lobby, but the sound of gunfire set off screams among students, who scrambled for cover among the bookshelves and barricaded themselves in rooms.

One person was in critical condition at a local hospital. Another, library staffer Nathan Scott, was in good condition at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. A third person was treated and released.

There were signs of problems before the shooting. Police in Las Cruces, N.M., said May was the subject of a harassment complaint last month after a former girlfriend called to report he came to her home uninvited and claimed police were bugging his house and car. Danielle Nixon told police May recently developed “a severe mental disorder.”

“Myron began to ramble and handed her a piece to a car and asked her to keep it because this was a camera that police had put in his vehicle,” a police report said.