‘I wanted to keep playing dead': Student shot by FSU gunman recounts terrifying ordeal

A Florida State University graduate student who was shot by a gunman in Thursday's campus shooting is recounting her terrifying ordeal as she recovers at a Tallahassee hospital.

Madison Askins spoke Friday from her hospital bed, saying she played dead as the gunman continued to open fire right next to her and believes that may have saved her life.

Askins, who's studying urban and regional planning at FSU, said she was going to lunch with a friend at the student union when the gunfire erupted.

"We heard some gunshots, we didn't know where it was coming from, so we both ducked and looked around, cause I didn't want to run toward the gunshots, so I tend to just look around and make sure that everything's safe," Askins said. "I heard more gunshots from him, I took off running after my friend, unfortunately I tripped and fell, as one does, apparently, I'm not always the most graceful person, so I tripped and fell, my friend tried to help me up but I ended up getting shot, and I felt it pretty quickly. He took off into the union."

Askins said she was shot in the buttocks and wanted to call her parents but decided to play dead.

"I released all my muscles, I held my breath, and I closed my eyes, I slumped over," she said. "I did have enough energy to get up possibly and keep moving if I needed to force it, because I was only shot in the butt, but I didn't want to risk it, just from what I've learned. anyway, so I closed my eyes. I didn't know where the shooter had gone. I thought he had actually wandered off. So I was gonna call my parents and let them know what was going on. I wanted to at least say my I love you's and stuff in case I passed away. So I was gonna shift and grab my phone. But I heard the shooter come up next to me, and I heard him reload."

Askins said the gunman was right next to her and she even heard him talking as he opened fire.

"So I knew I needed to stay dead, so I stayed slumped over. I know he reloaded. I'm very familiar with the sound of a clip being changed. My parents are Marines," she said. "But I remember him saying, 'Yeah, keep running.' So he was going after people who were running."

The grad student said believes pretending she was dead likely saved her life.

"When he when he stood over me, when he changed his clip, I know that if I had gotten up in that moment, he would have shot me a second time," Askins said. "I don't believe he was actively looking for a way to like, I don't think he was going back towards his injured victims and killing them, because if he did when he was next to me, he could have shot me twice, just to be certain, that is an option for for people who do this, but the fact he didn't shows that he was only after movement. So I knew that if I had moved, I would have been shot again."

Askins said it was hard to not call her parents in those moments when she thought she wouldn't make it through the shooting alive.

"I definitely thought it was the end," she said. "When I started to spiral a little bit, I did reach that point where I really want to tell my family I love them. I want to give my dad a call. He was the first person I wanted to call about it all, because I know that he and my mom worked together, and in case I did end up dying on the phone, I'd rather, I'd rather my dad hear, rather than my mother. So went through that process, but obviously didn't reach that point, because I was afraid the shooter had gotten next to me. I wanted to keep playing dead so I didn't have to make that phone call."

Askins said a female officer found her, packed her wound and stayed with her, standing over her. She was later rushed to the hospital and underwent surgery.

"The bullet traveled through my right buttocks, and it hit the sacrum, and then it went into the L-6, it's currently lodged in the bone," she said. "So according to my neurosurgeon, it's in our best interest just to leave the bullet for now and let everything heal up inside, and then come back in a couple months to get that bullet out.

Askins was one of several people injured in the shooting. Two men were killed.

Authorities said the 20-year-old shooting suspect was shot by responding officers and also hospitalized but expected to survive.

"I hope he gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, whatever that, whatever the lawmakers choose to make it," Askins said. "Do I want to see him out in 10 years? Absolutely not. So I hope it's something that he will live with forever."