FSU Gunman Heard Voices, Thought He Was Being Watched By Gov’t

A Florida State Police guards the outside of the crime scene tape after the shooting outside the Strozier library on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee, Florida on Thursday November 20, 2014. Three st... A Florida State Police guards the outside of the crime scene tape after the shooting outside the Strozier library on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee, Florida on Thursday November 20, 2014. Three students were wounded and the gunman was shot and killed by police officers. (AP Photo/Don Juan Moore) MORE LESS
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man who shot three people at a Florida State University library complained to police and property managers in New Mexico that cameras were watching him in his apartment and that he heard voices talking about and laughing at him, according to police reports released Friday.

Myron May walked into the Las Cruces Police Department in September to report he was almost certain there were cameras installed in his apartment and that he could hear voices commenting on his activities, a police report said. For instance, May told an officer, after a bubble bath he began applying lotion to his body and heard voices that said, “Did you see that? He never puts lotion on.”

May, a 2005 Florida State graduate, returned to the school early Thursday and shot two students and a library worker before reloading his semi-automatic pistol. Police
responded within two minutes and fired off a barrage of bullets that killed him.

Videos and a journal obtained by police indicate he thought he was being watched and targeted by the government.

The first 911 call from the shooting came from one of the victims, according to an initial Tallahassee Police report released Friday.

The victims are student Elijah Velez, 18, who was grazed by a bullet and treated at the scene; student Farhan Ahmed, 21, who was in critical condition when admitted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and is still being treated, and library employee Nathan Scott, 30, who was shot in the leg. Police didn’t say which one called 911, but there were several more calls that followed.

In New Mexico, May apparently also suspected neighbors were watching him at his Las Cruces apartment. A woman who shared a wall with him had a football-sized landscaping rock thrown at her window at 2 a.m. Oct. 20. Responding officers talked to a maintenance man, who told them May complained to property managers that
neighbors were laughing at him as he watched pornography.

The officers then matched the rock to a gap in landscaping rocks in front of May’s apartment. The maintenance man told them he took care of May’s dog several times during his stays at a mental hospital, according to the report.

That incident happened less than three weeks before May returned to Wewahitchka, Florida, where he stayed at a guest cottage owned by friends.

Authorities Friday were examining packages May sent to friends before the Florida State shooting.

Joe Paul, a Washington, D.C., resident and motivational speaker who knew May from their time in Florida State student government, said postal inspectors intercepted a package May sent to him. The postal inspectors told him that the package contained nothing dangerous, and promised they would eventually release it to him.

“We want to know why this happened,” Paul said. “The sooner we know why this happened, the sooner we can start to heal.”

Paul said May mailed similar packages to about nine people. The FBI in Houston was examining another package delivered in Texas and others were believed to have been sent to Florida and elsewhere. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said the packages weren’t a threat and said they were flat-rate, priority mail envelopes.

Florida State President John Thrasher greeted about 100 students Friday as Strozier Library reopened with a heavy police presence and the university resumed classes.

“I still don’t know there’s any real explanation why he picked Strozier, why he picked the time he did,” said Thrasher, who has been on the job less than two weeks. “That’s beyond, I think, anyone understanding now.”

University police participated in active shooter training less than two weeks
before the attack, including a scenario with a shooter at the library.

“It’s good to know we look at those opportunities where someone may try to
harm our students,” said university police Chief David Perry.

___

Llorca reported from Las Cruces, New Mexico. Associated Press writers Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Florida; Mike Graczyk in Houston, and Matthew Barakat in McLean, Virginia, contributed to this report.

Follow Brendan Farrington on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bsfarrington

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.

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