A Florida State University student said he survived a bullet from a gunman during Thursday's shooting thanks to some books he had just checked out from the library.
Jason Derfuss said he was about five feet from the gunman when he heard a shot behind him at the Strozier Library on FSU's campus.
"There is no way I should be alive," the 21-year-old humanities student told NBC News. "Literally, those books saved my life."
Derfuss said he didn't feel the bullet hit the books but looked and saw the shredded books a few hours after the shooting.
"I never thought to check my bag. I assumed I wasn't a target, I assumed I was fine," Derfuss wrote on his Facebook page. "The truth is I was almost killed tonight and God intervened."
Police said between 300-400 people were in the library when the gunman opened fire around 12:30 a.m. Two students were shot and taken to a nearby hospital, where one remained in critical condition Thursday. A third student was grazed by a bullet and treated at the scene.
Officers shot and killed the gunman at the scene.
