WASHINGTON — It turns out that the shooting early Thursday morning in a
library at Florida State University has a bizarre twist and a local
connection.
Jay Korff, of ABC7, tells WTOP that an Alexandria, Virginia man was in contact
with shooter Myron May shortly before the shooting, in which three people were
injured, one critically, and May was killed by police.
Joe Paul, of Alexandria, and May went to Florida State together as
undergraduates. May graduated in 2005.
Saturday, Korff says, Paul and nine other people received a Facebook message
from Myron May looking for their mailing addresses, saying he was going to
send them something.
“And we sent him our mailing address, thinking it was maybe a wedding
invitation,” Paul tells ABC7.
“You never know what it was. We didn’t know what it was.”
Shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday, about 2 ½ hours before the shooting, Paul
received another Facebook message from May, saying that the package was on its
way and would get there on Friday. The message included a picture of the
package — “a medium-sized parcel,” Korff says.
When he saw May’s name and picture on TV, Paul told to ABC7, “I really
couldn’t believe it.”
He immediately called the Tallahassee police, who told him not to open the
package, and to “let the Alexandria police take care of it,” Korff relates.
Paul told Korff that May was “a great guy in college,” but felt that his
recent social-media postings cast doubt on his mental health. Police said
Thursday that May’s journal and recent social-media postings indicated that he
thought he was being followed and persecuted by the government.
In the meantime, Paul is waiting for signs of the package.
“We really don’t know when it’s going to come and what’s in it,” Korff says.
Paul tells ABC7 he hopes it’s something along the lines of a manifesto.
“What we hope is in the package is why he chose to do this.”
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