Ravens rookie safety Terrence Brooks woke up early Thursday morning to a text message that got his immediate attention.
There was a shooting in the library at Florida State University, where Brooks went to college, and a couple of students were hurt.
“It definitely hit home,” Brooks said Friday. “That’s my school. I went to school with a lot of those people, had some great times. Just to have something crazy or tragic like that, it’s not good for the university or the students there. My heart goes out to all of them. That’s a pretty crazy thing to deal with when you’re going to school there."
Ravens rookie defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan, a teammate of Brooks' last year on the national champion Seminoles, heard the news much later and immediately thought of all the time he had spent in the library.
“It definitely opens your eyes to realize that anything could happen to you at any moment,” Jernigan said. “You really have to cherish every day. I spent a lot of hours in that same exact library. All I can do is pray for the people who were injured in the incident and everybody that was affected. At the end of the day, all we can really do is come together, as the state of Florida, and try and get through it.”
According to media reports, three students were wounded in the shootings; one of them is in critical condition. The gunman, revealed as Myron May, a 31-year-old lawyer and Florida State graduate, was shot and killed by police.
Jernigan said he hasn’t spoken to anyone who was in the library during the incident. But Brooks said he spoke to a friend, Sarah Evans, who was in the library during the shooting.
“She actually got a video of some of the stuff that happened there. We just talked to her and asked her what had happened and how it went down,” Brooks said. “She said it was a pretty wild event. A lot of people were confused and scared. It was just a tragic thing that happened. We hope that nothing like that happens ever again.
"It's definitely a tragic thing for Florida State. You definitely don't want those kids being scared to walk around campus or it to just change up the vibe that they've been on. I feel like they're going to stay strong and pull through it."