Strozier worker thankful for his life after shooting

Nathan Scott was a half-hour into his overnight shift at Strozier Library when he got the first inkling something was wrong.

He heard a "pretty loud pop" outside the library but dismissed it as a firecracker. Five or 10 seconds later, he heard three more pops in rapid succession. Alarmed, he and another front-desk worker stood up to see what was happening.

It was just before 12:30 a.m. last Thursday and dark outside. Scott remembers seeing a guy in a sweatshirt standing outside the library by the steps. He couldn't make out his face or the gun.

"What I clearly remember is a muzzle flash — he was shooting east of the library toward the dorms," Scott said. "I think he saw some students. He must have — he was trying to shoot students."

Scott said the next moments are fuzzy in his mind, but he thinks he saw two muzzle flashes and heard perhaps three to four gunshots. He saw the gunman — later identified as FSU graduate Myron May — begin to walk up the steps, toward the entrance of the library.

"That was when the adrenaline started to really kind of affect us," said Scott, in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat. "As soon as he started up the steps, we both decided to get under the desk."

For the next 10 seconds or so, Scott and his co-worker had no idea where the gunman was.

"I did hear the door open, but I didn't hear any kind of walking or foot patter."

Scott, who'd curled up into a ball, trying to position as much of his body under the desk as possible, looked up and saw the gunman, standing about eight feet away," he said.

May didn't say a word.

Scott pleaded with him not to shoot.

"I remember saying, 'No, no, no, no, no,' " he said. "I think I had my hands up, too. And then he just fired a shot. There was no delay at all. After the shot — I really clearly remember this moment — I had no idea I had been shot until I felt some kind of liquid sensation on my leg. And that's what I assumed was blood."

He heard clicking sounds and assumed the gunman was out of bullets or the gun wasn't firing for some reason. Scott got up and saw May standing by some chairs outside a closed Starbucks in the lobby.

"He was playing with his gun, maybe trying to reload or fix a jam," he said.

Scott and the coworker ran fullspeed through turnstiles toward the circulation desk.

"No one was running or screaming," Scott said. "No one even knew what was going on."

Scott ran up to a few circulation workers, told them he'd been shot and warned them a gunman was on the loose. He thought about going to a nearby service stairwell to hide but figured the door was locked. Instead, he ran behind a central stairwell and sat down, trying to staunch the bleeding in his leg with his hand.

About that time, he heard a dozen shots outside the library, which echoed over the radio of a Strozier security worker who'd approached him.

Emergency workers came rushing in, trying to get students off the first floor of the library in case there was a second shooter, Scott said. Two officers helped him outside the library, and he sat down on the front steps waiting for an ambulance.

The man who shot him moments earlier lay motionless on the ground.

"He was face-down, and he was handcuffed," Scott said. "A gun was probably two or three feet away."

Paramedics loaded Scott onto a gurney and wheeled him toward the ambulance. On the way, he could see paramedics working on another of May's victims — Farhan "Ronny" Ahmed.

The bullet that struck Scott went into his left upper thigh and out his left buttock, missing major veins and arteries along the way. He had surgery later that afternoon — doctors put three screws in his femur to stabilize the bone — and is expected to make a full recovery.

"They say I was very lucky," said Scott, 30, who graduated from Leon High School and earned an engineering degree from Florida State University in 2011.

He was one of three people injured in the shooting. Ahmed, a 21-year-old FSU student, was shot three times, including once in the spine. His doctors and family members confirmed last week that one of the bullets severely damaged his spinal cord and he is paralyzed from the waist down. Elijah Velez, 18, was grazed by a bullet and treated at the scene. May, 31, was shot and killed at the scene by police.

Scott had to use a walker after getting out of the hospital last Friday, but he's been able to get by without it the past couple of days, he said. He said he doesn't need any help — instead, he's encouraged people to give to Ahmed, whose friends are raising money for him through the website youcaring.com.

"I don't think it will change my life that much," he said of the shooting. "Certainly not as much as it's changed Ronny's life."

He said he plans to have a quiet Thanksgiving dinner with friends today at his Frenchtown home. After escaping the library with his life, he acknowledged he has plenty to be grateful for.

"It's a very pertinent time for Thanksgiving for me," he said. "I can't ask for anything more, honestly."'