Las Cruces District Attorney talks about what alleged FSU shooter was like when he worked for him

The Third Judicial District Attorney Mark D’Antonio discussed his office’s employment of the Myron May, the man authorities say shot three people on the Florida State University campus early Thursday.

Police shot May dead when he wouldn’t surrender.

D’Antonio told media Thursday afternoon that he was “shocked beyond words and deeply saddened” by the news about the shooting incident.

D’Antonio said that May worked in the public defender’s office in Las Cruces, New Mexico prior to applying to work in the District Attorney’s Office in Dona Ana County.

May worked for D’Antonio’s office as an assistant district attorney from mid-January 2014 to Oct. 6, 2014 when he abruptly resigned.

D’Antonio found May’s resignation letter on May’s desk. He said May had never talked about wanting to leave the DA’s office.

“He did his job with distinction and honor,” D’Antonio said. “He was well-liked by his peers and I personally liked him.”

D’Antonio said he was not excusing May’s behavior if he was involved in the shooting incident but said while he worked for his office he was well-liked and received no complaints about his job performance or his attitude.

While with the DA’s office May handled felonies.

May was an FSU alumnus who police say shot three people at the school’s library early Thursday.

A law enforcement official said the shooter was May, who also graduated from Texas Tech University’s law school. The official requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release the name.

The shooting happened about 12:30 a.m., with the sound of about half a dozen gunshots sending hundreds of students who had been up all night studying for exams scrambling for cover in the book aisles and barricading themselves in with desks amid screams from classmates.

“I ran for my life,” said Allison Kope, a freshman from Cocoa Beach, who was on the library’s first floor. “I ran right out the backdoor. My laptop and everything is still in there. It was shock. It was just instinct. You don’t think about anything else, you just go.”

Two people are hospitalized, one in critical condition and one in good condition, and one was released.

May’s Facebook page shows he posted mostly Bible verses and links to conspiracy theories about the government reading people’s minds.

Abigail Taunton, who runs a foster home in the Florida Panhandle, told AP that May was staying at a guest house she owns.

“He’s just a boy our kids grew up with that we let stay in one of our guest houses for a while,” she said. “He’s moving back home from Texas and we were trying to help him get on his feet.”

Records show May was licensed to practice law in Texas and New Mexico. Taunton said he was planning to take the Florida bar exam in February.

“We’re just all astounded. We had no idea that he would do something like this,” Taunton said. “Obviously, he was not in his right mind.”

She said she had known him since he was about 13 or 14 and that he ran cross country with her kids and stayed at her house a lot. She said he lived with his grandmother after coming out of a “bad situation” with his parents.

“He was having some financial issues and moved back home and decided he’d come back to Florida to work,” she said. “My heart’s broken. In a million years I wouldn’t have thought he’d do something like this. He was struggling, having decided that what he was doing out there was not good. He had some issues and just decided he’d come home.”

Police and FSU officials called the shooting an “isolated incident,” but have not released many details, including how far May made it into Strozier Library. FSU’s campus is located less than a mile from downtown Tallahassee and the state Capitol.

“This person just for whatever reason produced a handgun and then began shooting students in the library,” FSU Police Chief David Perry said.

The shooting prompted a campus alert that urged students to take shelter and stay away from doors and windows.

Sarah Evans, a senior from Miami, said she was inside the library and heard a male student say he had been shot. When she looked at him, he was on the ground with blood spreading on his pants leg.

Tallahassee and Florida State University police confronted the gunman just outside the library that sits in the middle of the campus and ordered him to drop his handgun, but he fired a shot at them and they unleashed a volley of shots, Tallahassee Police spokesman Dave Northway said.

Hours after the shooting, detectives could be seen inspecting the body of May, who was lying face down at the top of a ramp just outside the library. A baseball cap lay nearby.

FSU canceled classes Thursday but said they would resume Friday. The library was also to reopen Friday.

Florida State President John Thrasher, who took office earlier this month, was in New York City at the time of the shooting but has returned to campus.

Gov. Rick Scott had been in South Florida for a meeting with other Republican governors. He returned to Tallahassee where he met with Thrasher.

“The police investigation will answer many of the questions we are asking today, but just like any tragedy the ultimate question of why, we’ll never have an answer that satisfies those who loved ones have been injured,” Scott said.