TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Derrick Mitchell Jr. doesn't know any other way to feel.
'I'm blessed,' said the Florida State junior defensive tackle after Saturday's 20-17 victory over Boston College.
Mitchell is referring to the fact that he was at Florida State's Strozier Library early Thursday morning, working on a group project with several classmates just a few minutes before former FSU student Myron May burst into the lobby of the building and opened fire, wounding two students and a library employee.
May was killed by University Police outside the library when he refused to surrender.
Mitchell said his group finished their project for a Facilities Management class shortly before midnight and he started to leave. But he said he stopped and waited for the others in his group, a decision that might have saved his life and that of his classmates.
'I was leaving, because it was midnight and I had practice the next day,' said the 6-foot-4, 303-pound Mitchell, who had three tackles in Saturday's game. 'Something told me to turn around and wait on the other group members and walk out with them together. I waited for them. Thank God, I waited those extra minutes because I might probably would have been right there in the line of fire.'
When Mitchell and his friends heard the shots, he said he didn't think right away that it was a gun.
'Being in a library, you don't really think gun,' he said. 'The first thing I thought was that a bookshelf must have fallen. We left to go to the exit and we were near the guy who had been shot in the leg [Nathan Scott, the library employee]. I was standing 10 feet from him.'
Mitchell said Scott had the presence of mind to dial 911 despite his injury. Mitchell said he looked around and numerous other students had either called 911 or were doing so.
'It was crazy,' he said. 'Indescribable. People were panicking, but there were so many of them calling the police, I just stayed and made sure our group members were good.'
Mitchell, whose father lettered in basketball for FSU in 1988 and 1989 and is a lieutenant in the Jacksonville (Fla.) Sheriff's Office, believes it was no accident that he hesitated before going out the front door of the building.
'I was about to leave, but I believe God made me stop and go back and get the girls in the group,' he said. 'I think God did it so I could look out for them.'
Posted by Unknown on Monday, November 24, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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