FSU gunman mailed 10 packages before shooting, contents not dangerous

Myron May, the Florida State University alumnus who was killed by police after shooting three people on campus Thursday morning, told police in New Mexico he was hearing voices two months before the attack, according to police reports made public Friday.

May, 29, told a Las Cruces police officer that he was under surveillance and heard voices coming through the walls of his apartment, according to a police report filed on Sept. 7.

At one point, while getting out of a bath, May “specifically stated he heard voices say ‘Did you see that?’” according to the report.

After filing a harassment complaint with Las Cruces police on Oct. 7, May’s ex-girlfriend also told officers that he suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which had been worsening in recent months.

According to the harassment complaint, May had gone days without sleeping, and had driven back and forth between New Mexico and Colorado in one day for no reason. He constantly discussed a fear that police had placed cameras in his home.

A description of the Oct. 7 incident says that May appeared at his ex-girlfriend’s home and “began to ramble and handed her a piece to a car and asked her to keep it because this was a camera that the police had put in his vehicle.”

May was also taken to a Las Cruces hospital for a mental health evaluation in September, according to the report, but his ex-girlfriend told police he had not made any homicidal or suicidal threats.

He had worked as a public defender and prosecuting attorney for the 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Las Cruces, but abruptly resigned on Oct. 6, the day before the incident with his ex-girlfriend, according to prosecutors.

Danny Trujillo, a Las Cruces Police Department spokesman, told the Los Angeles Times that May did not express any signs that he was a danger to others. If he had, a district court judge or medical professional could have issued an order to have him placed in a mental facility.

It remains unclear why May chose to attack the Tallahassee campus Thursday, or what prompted the shooting. Tallahassee police have said May kept journals and that they recovered videos expressing a growing fear that he was under government surveillance.

May entered the Stozier Library around 12:25 a.m. Thursday, police said, shooting a campus employee and two students before he was confronted by Tallahassee and university police officers.

Thirty shots were fired, according to Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo, though it remains unclear whether May fired at police. He died at the scene.

On Friday, Tallahassee police identified the shooting victims as Elijah Velez, 18, Nathan Scott, 29, and Farhan Ahmed, 21.

Velez sustained a graze wound and was treated and released at the scene, according to a police statement.

Scott suffered a leg wound and is recovering at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, police said. Ahmed is also being treated at a local hospital, but police did not offer any information about his condition.

As details about May’s mental health issues began to surface, the U.S. Postal Service also announced it was investigating several packages he had shipped throughout the country days before the shooting.

At 4:30 p.m., Postal Service spokeswoman Lori McCallister said agents had recovered 10 packages mailed by May, and determined none of the contents were hazardous.

It was not clear where the packages were sent, or what they contained.

Special Agent Shauna Dunlap, an FBI spokeswoman in Houston, told the Los Angeles Times that investigators on Friday recovered one of the packages that had been shipped to a Houston resident.

May lived in Dayton, Ohio, as a child and moved to Florida as a teenager, according to Tallahassee police.

Times Staff Writer Christine Mai-Duc contributed to this report.

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