'What can we do? What can be done?' FAMU community grapples with 'senseless' mass shooting

Florida A&M University students and residents say they are shocked and concerned by the daytime mass shooting Sunday afternoon on campus, which killed one person and injured four others.

One FAMU student says he is grateful he wasn’t caught up in the shooting incident. He could have been.

Matthew Rivera, a health science student, said he was planning to play on the basketball courts Sunday afternoon after getting an invite from one of his line brothers of the Beta Nu chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

“I have line brothers and friends that go hooping there all the time,” Rivera said Monday. “An hour before (receiving a text alert “about an armed assailant on campus”) (SGA President) Zachary (Bell) hit up the chat talking about anyone wanna go hoop.”

Although many fraternity brothers initially responded about going to the Hansel E. Tookes, Sr. Student Recreation Center to meet up for a regular game of basketball, they ended up not going.

The shooting left Rivera and others with many questions and a sense of powerlessness.

What happened: Tallahassee police searching for suspect who fired into crowd on FAMU campus; 1 dead, 4 hurt

Students, community have questions

“It’s kind of like what can we do? What can be done?” Rivera said Monday.

The violence not only occurred at a popular recreation site on campus but within walking distance of the fraternity’s house, a popular destination for tailgates and other gatherings, such as this coming weekend’s Founders’ Day celebration.

"What's new?" Rivera said about the rising gun violence in Tallahassee. He referenced the mass shooting last month at the Half Time Liquors parking lot on West Pensacola Street.

What is a mass shooting?: There's no consensus definition, but here's what you should know

Background: Records: Man seen kneeling as he fired into crowd during Tallahassee mass shooting

This time, it was on his campus.

Student body president Bell was direct in his response to the tragedy.

“It’s really important for people to put the guns down,” he told the Tallahassee Democrat Monday. “I know a lot of students go and play basketball up there because they feel safe. The fact that gun violence is touching the campus is extremely unfortunate, especially the fact that we are a pillar to the community.”

The shooting also resonated with Marcus Footman, an instructor and city league coach at the Walker Ford Community Center. One of the victims of Sunday’s shooting visited the community center, he said.

“I don’t think the city or county or even the state do enough to teach the kids about gun violence,” Footman said at the center on Monday.

'Bring the experts in': Here's how Tallahassee is divvying up $1 million to stop shootings

New gun violence task force launched: Here's how the city plans to crack down on shootings

Mass shooting highlights importance of student safety

Footman, who grew up in Tallahassee, said he wants to see kids in the community thrive and grow up.

“At some point you have to get sick and tired of always hearing about somebody young dying too early,” Footman, a father of two children, said.

The shooting has left Cayla Goff questioning the safety on campus and the accessibility the public has to the FAMU campus.

“In that area, they need to watch over more,” said Goff, adding her car was “smashed” in the center’s parking lot.  “A lot of stuff happens. Just coming onto campus is a little too easily accessible.”

Tami Lawrence, an employee at Earley’s Kitchen, located about a mile away from the FAMU recreation center, said she heard the gunshots from her home Sunday afternoon.

“Something needs to be done,” Lawrence said of what she described as the “senseless” gun violence in the city.

She agrees with Goff that people “just hanging out” are beginning to become the problem.

A friend of Lawrence's at the local restaurant, Monty Green, 77, says his neighborhood on Osceola Street is now cursed because of the shooting.

“Now it’s closer to home,” Green said.

Kamryn Jenkins, a first-year music industry student and a member of the Marching 100, said she frequents “The Patch,” the Marching 100’s practice field adjacent to the outdoor basketball court.

She said the proximity of the shooting was alarming.

“I think it was kind of crazy that people are just now coming back from break and there is already violence happening,” said Jenkins, 18, a FAMU Towers resident. She returned to campus from Thanksgiving break Sunday evening.

“It’s kind of crazy that something happened to us that close,” Jenkins said.

Democrat writer Kyla A. Sanford can be reached at ksanford@gannett.com. Contact Democrat writer Alaijah Brown at ABrown1@gannett.com and on Twitter at @BrownAlaijah.  

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU students react to mass shooting at rec center basketball courts