Books in backpack stop FSU gunman's first bullet
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A senior at Florida State University unwittingly fell victim to the first shot from a campus gunman early Thursday but didn't know it until a few hours later.
Jason Derfuss, 21, was leaving Strozier Library at about 12:25 a.m. ET when he heard the unmistakable sound of a gunshot behind him. He turned around and saw what he called a "normal-looking" student wearing a dark hoodie walk up to another student and fire two more shots from a handgun at point-blank range.
He couldn't make out any faces in the darkness but saw one victim collapse on the ground just outside the library.
"The gun went off two times and the student who was shot ... just gave out and crumpled to the ground," Derfuss said later Thursday. He didn't hear the shooter or victim utter a word.
Terrified, Derfuss ran toward his car in a nearby parking lot.
"I immediately turned around and sprinted to my car," he said. "I got in my car. I drove off. And as I drove off, I called my dad, who calmed me down. And he told me to call 911, so I did."
Derfuss gave a statement to police, then went to the off-campus home he shares with three other Florida State students.
About 3:15 a.m., he dumped the contents of his backpack on the floor and saw that the books he had checked out had been mangled. One of his roommates went through the backpack and found the slug.
It had traveled entirely through a volume titled Great Medieval Thinkers: John Wyclif and pierced a second book, two of several he had gotten for a paper due the next day in his Christian Tradition class.
"It was hard to wrap my mind around," he said. "I've been told multiple times that those books shouldn't have stopped the bullet."
One National Rifle Association member who writes The Box o' Truth blog decided to see how far almost a dozen types of ammunition would penetrate a stack of books.
A round from a .22 pistol fired around 10 feet away penetrated about an inch. An armor-penetrating 7.62 X 25 stopped about 7 inches into the stack.
Most shots from rifles at about 20 yards traveled farther. A .30-06 with an armor-piercing round traveled 19½ inches into the books.
"I honestly think this was a direct intervention by God," Derfuss said.