FSU student from South Fla. captures cellphone video of shooting victim

Sarah Evans recalls 'panic' at Strozier Library as wounded victim lying on floor

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Florida State University student from South Florida recorded cellphone video of one of the victims wounded in a shooting at the main library on campus.

Sarah Evans was at the Robert Manning Strozier Library early Thursday morning when someone yelled that there had been a shooting.

That man turned out to be one of three students who had been shot. He was shot in the leg.

She took cellphone video of the incident, which shows the man lying on the floor holding his leg.

"It's bleeding," he said on the video. "It hurts."

Evans, who is originally from Kendall, was at the library finishing her application to intern with the Miami Marlins. She is expected to graduate next month with a degree in social media and sport management.

"The first thing that I recognized was the gunshot -- a sound," Evans said in an interview with Local 10 News reporter Michael Seiden. "I mean I didn't freak out at first because it wasn't as loud as I had pictured a gunshot sounding like. I had never heard one before. So I was nervous, but it hadn't hit me yet."

Evans said it wasn't until an employee ran to where she and other students were standing and frantically called 911 that she realized something was wrong.

"It was surreal to me and it wasn't until I walked around the corner that I saw the victim bleeding, lying down holding his leg," she said.

Evans said everyone was running to hide and try to get away.

"It was just a panic," she said.

Evans said she immediately called her father to tell her what was happening.

"I just told her, 'Hey, it's not time to get excited or break down. It's time to use your head and be smart,'" Mark Evans told Local 10 News reporter Ben Kennedy from their home in South Florida.

He said that's just what she did.

"You know, she collected herself, moved upstairs and got out of harm's way," he said.

Another South Florida mother experienced a similar scenario. Alana Stokes said her daughter was on the fourth floor of the library at the time.

"My heart just went out to her being in that type of situation and not being there to comfort her," Stokes told Kennedy.

The first thing Blair Stokes did after finding a safe spot was send her mother a text message.

"I started shaking immediately and I didn't stop shaking," she said. "I think I'm still shaking."

Alana Stokes said it was a relief to know the FSU senior was safe.

"You just don't think something like this will ever happen, and this hits just way too close to home," she said.

Sarah Evans echoed those sentiments from Tallahassee.

"You just never think it's going to be your school," she said.

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