Members of the Florida State University community will return to the areas in and around the student union building on Friday for the first time since Thursday’s shooting.
They are being allowed there to retrieve the personal belongings they left behind — items abandoned in the chaos when gunfire shattered the calm and sent students fleeing for their lives.
McKenzie Heeter, a 20-year-old junior, was just feet away from the gunman when the shooting began.
“I was leaving the union with food in my hand,” McKenzie recalled. “I noticed [an orange vehicle that looked like a Hummer]. Then I saw him [wearing a matching orange shirt], waving around a bigger rifle … and then he pulled out the handgun and shot that woman. That’s when I just completely ran.”
McKenzie describes sprinting across campus in sheer panic.
“I did a four-minute mile in sandals. I’ve never run that fast in my life,” she said. “I felt like I have got to leave or else it could be me next.”
While she says the entire afternoon feels surreal, one moment replays vividly in her mind — the horrific moment she saw the suspect shoot a woman in purple scrubs from behind.
“Her back was to him. She was just walking. I don’t even think she registered what happened. That’s what I just keep thinking about.”
In the chaos, McKenzie’s first call was to her mom.
Evacuees watch law enforcement work on Florida State University (FSU) campus after a mass shooting in Tallahassee, Florida, U.S., April 17, 2025.
Alicia Devine/via Reuters
“She’s my best friend. I just wanted her to know I was okay,” she said.
Investigators say the gunman killed two people, neither of them students, and injured six others who have yet to be identified.
One suffered critical injuries but, on Thursday evening, was upgraded with the rest of the injured survivors to fair condition.
The accused gunman, a stepson of a local sheriff’s deputy, was also taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries after law enforcement agents shot him.
Investigators say the suspect used a handgun that was once his stepmother’s service weapon. He was also carrying a shotgun, investigators say.
As the entire campus continues to process the trauma, McKenzie tells ABC News that her sense of safety has been shattered.
“The most heartbreaking part is that everybody feels unsafe now. Someone just came and took that from us,” she said.
