FSU Student Saved by Great Medieval Thinkers

Post Reply
John Flynn

FSU Student Saved by Great Medieval Thinkers

Post by John Flynn » Fri Nov 21, 2014 2:30 pm

Image
A Florida State University student who survived a campus shooting Thursday owes his life to a Nebraska professor who had a lot to say about a 14th century English theologian.

Jason Derfuss had just checked out a thick volume entitled “John Wyclif” by Stephen Lahey to write a paper for a religion class when an unhinged lawyer stormed the school library and started shooting.

“The shot I heard behind me I did not feel, nor did it hit me at all,” the 21-year-old senior posted on Facebook. “He was about 5 feet from me, but he hit my books. Books one minute earlier I had checked out of the library, books that should not have stopped the bullet.”

But Lahey’s book — 304 pages published by the Oxford University Press as part of its Great Medieval Thinkers series — did just that.

Myron D’Shawn May’s shot pierced Derfuss’s backpack and another book before it lodged in the pages of the Lahey’s tome.
Image
Derfuss said he didn’t realize it until three hours later.

“I never thought to check my bag,” he wrote. “I assumed I wasn’t a target.”

Lahey, who teaches classics at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, said he was horrified by the FSU shooting and “absolutely floored” to learn that his book helped save a young man’s life.

“That’s what happens when you write impenetrable prose,” he told The Daily News.

May, 31, was later killed by cops, but not before wounding two students — one of them critically — and a school employee.

“We have not found any info at this time why (he) chose this morning to act (or) why he chose to attack our library,” said Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo.

But May “was in a state of crisis,” DeLeo said, citing the cellphone, journal and videos they confiscated from May’s car.

“He referred to government targeting,” the police chief said. “He was searching for something.”

Image
May was a 2005 FSU graduate and a Bible-quoting Christian who had been working as a lawyer in Texas .


May invaded the Strozier Library at 12:30 a.m. while hundreds of students were cramming for exams. But he didn’t get past the security desk before he started shooting with a .380 semi-automatic pistol, DeLeo said.

Senior Sarah Evans said she froze when she found a man lying on the ground, bleeding from the leg.
“I’ll never forget the look on his face,” she said. “He yelled, ‘I’ve been shot. There’s a gun’.”

Image
Jason Derfuss thanked God for the divine intervention.


Police did not release the name of the wounded, all of whom are male. Two are still being treated at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and the third, who suffered a graze wound, was treated and released.


While at FSU, he had two minor brushes with the law. He was stopped on suspicion of smoking marijuana and the victim of a car burglary, police said.

At Texas Tech University's law school, May was a stellar student who worked on the law review, was a leader with the National Black Law Students Association, and a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/a ... -1.2017192

Post Reply