A Florida State University student has some new favorite books.
Jason Derfuss, a 21-year-old senior studying for his Christian Tradition class, was the first person targeted by gunman Myron May during an early morning shooting outside Strozier Library on the school's Tallahassee campus.
Thing is, he didn't know it - he was unharmed. Two texts, 'Great Medieval Thinkers' by John Wyclif and a second placed inside his backpack, had taken the brunt of the gunfire, literally saving his life. The slug was stopped mere inches from his back.
'He was about 5 feet from me, but he hit my books,' Derfuss wrote on Facebook alongside photos of the mangled texts and the slug they stopped. 'Books one minute earlier I had checked out of the library, books that should not have stopped the bullet. But they did.'
Three other students were injured before school police officers shot and killed May, a lawyer who graduated from FSU in 2005. Derfuss unknowingly was the first person targeted, a direct shot that hit him square in the back and traveled through his backpack and one book before the bullet lodged in the second.
Tallahassee Democrat
'I learned this about 3 hours after it happened, I never thought to check my bag,' he wrote on social media. 'I assumed I wasn't a target, I assumed I was fine. The truth is I was almost killed tonight and God intervened. I know conceptually He can do all things, but to physically witness the impossible and to be surrounded by such grace is indescribable.'
sgoldstein@nydailynews.com
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, November 20, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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