20-05-2025
FSU students return home to Atlanta for the summer as they heal following shooting
It's been one month since a deadly shooting unfolded on Florida State University's campus, after police say gunman Phoenix Ikner opened fire outside the student union.
Over 300 miles from home, FSU student and Marist graduate Luke Waugh says it was just by chance that he wasn't in the middle of it all.
'I had an 11:35 a.m. environmental science class, and I had never missed it before… but I overslept my alarm,' Waugh told Channel 2's Brittany Kleinpeter.
Had Waugh attended class that day, he would've been just feet away from where the first shot was fired at 11:56 a.m.
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'I really just took it as a sign from God, personally,' he added.
Fellow Marist graduate and FSU freshman Rush Williams had been in the area shortly before the shooting.
'I got a call from another Marist kid who was locked out of his classroom, so I checked my phone immediately—and I saw the alert from FSU,' said Williams.
Williams said he returned home to Atlanta within hours of the shooting.
'It was good to come back and decompress when it first happened,' said Williams.
Eight people were shot that day, and two were killed.
In the days that followed, these students say the community rallied around one another. Marist graduate Charlie Lamm was a part of making that happen.
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'We were able to host a big BBQ with about 1,200 students and a bunch of first responders… just to bring the community together and show what it was really all about,' said Lamm.
Through donations raised at the BBQ, Lamm and his Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity brothers were able to raise hundreds of dollars for the victims and their families.
'I just felt like what happened is really something no one should ever experience,' added Lamm.
As the Atlanta graduates spend time at home healing this summer, they agree that it's the unity they felt on campus in the aftermath that has them ready to return.
'Obviously, it's a big school—there are 30,000 undergraduates—but it felt a lot smaller in the days after the shooting,' said Williams.
'Seeing something like that happen at a place where I'm always at is very eye-opening… It's like you need to enjoy the time you have and be thankful for everything you have,' added Lamm.
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