Cnn
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While Ilana Badiner took refuge in the student union during the Florida State University shootout on Thursday, she remembers thinking that “I already knew the exercise.”
Seven years ago, Badiner was a student of eighth year at the adjacent college at Marjory Stoneman Douglas secondary school during the shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida.
“I have already experienced this. It was a similar situation,” said Badiner, 21, at CNN.
Now senior in FSU, Badiner attended a bowlingal class on the ground floor of the student union Thursday when a shooter opened fire near the building, killing two people and injuring six others before being shot and placed in police custody by the police.
He marked the sixth mass shoot in Florida and the 81st mass shot in the United States in 2025, according to the archives of armed violence.
The bowling alley has large glass doors and windows facing an open area where students can take food or study. Through the windows, Badiner started to see students sprinter towards the bathrooms and the corridors and leaving their personal effects behind.
Although Badiner cannot hear any shots on noisy music playing in the bowling alley, she instantly thought that students were running from someone with a firearm.
“I did not know why everyone would run and they left all their property and certainly knew that there was an emergency,” she said.
She and a friend immediately left her Bowling instructor to know that something was wrong. The instructor was Stephanie Horowitz, according to Badiner, who was also a survivor of the park shooting. Horowitz was a first-year student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas secondary school during the 2018 mass shooting on Valentine’s Day.
“I had the feeling that it was an active shooter before I even heard,” said Horowitz, a student graduated from FSU, in an interview with CBS. “We were lucky that some of my students have looked at glass doors and saw everyone run.”
Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jaime Guttenberg, 14, who was killed during the Parkland shooting, posted on X: “America is broken. My daughter Jaime was murdered in the shooting of the park school.
The second year Brianna Jade Freedland, who was also in eighth year at the College adjacent to Marjory Stoneman Douglas during the shooting, took refuge Thursday at the FSU gymnasium with her roommate.
They trained on the second floor when they heard students screaming “active shooting” and quickly took place in the women’s locker rooms with around 125 others, she told CNN.
During her hiding place, Freedland saw those around them crying, shaking and sending SMS to goodbye messages to their parents. She said that all the anxiety and fear of Parkland suddenly returned to rush.
She was in a portable classroom attached to the Westglades Middle School during the shooting of 2018, where there were large windows without many places to hide. She and her classmates were nestled under the office of her civic teacher for at least three hours.
“I just remember that I have literally afraid of my life,” said Freedland. “I just remembered to think literally, like that.”
She could not set foot in the portable classroom for at least a month and her family adopted an assistance dog after the tragedy to help Freedland to face. She also collected $ 10,000 for Marjory Stoneman Douglas for her Mitzvah fund collection project.
On Thursday, while hiding in the FSU locker room, his experience in Parkland helped her know what to expect and reassure his aid as a roommate was on the way, said Freedland.
After about two hours, the police escorted them safely from the gymnasium while he was holding all the hands raised in the air.
“No one should never have to experience this kind of fear once, even less twice,” she said.
Josh Gallagher, who said that he also survived the 2018 shooting, was part of the FSU law library during Thursday’s shooting.
“After having experienced the filming of MSD in 2018, I never thought that it would strike again near my home,” he posted on social networks.
Memories of the park shooting
Horowitz led Badiner and about 30 to 40 others to hide in the back of the bowling alley, according to Badiner. Some students also took refuge in a back room where people play billiards.
It was at this time that Badiner began to receive texts from the FSU emergency line while an air alarm sounds. His suspicions of a shooting were correct.
She started sending SMS to her father every few minutes. Was she thought to have thought: was the shooter in the building? Was he outside? What floor was he on?
She also thought of her eighth year time in Parkland – when her class turned off the lights, locked the door, covered the windows and nestled against a class wall for about three hours while waiting for answers because they could hear neighboring police sirens.
“Finally, they came to the speaker, and we discovered that it was in Stoneman Douglas,” she said. “We are very close to this school. So we don’t know who was the shooter or what was his pattern, so we didn’t know if he would come to our building afterwards. ”
For a while after the deadly shooting, she should keep the lights on to fall asleep at night.
“I just felt nervous to be in darkness,” she said.
She remembered having been escorted from her eighth year class by a Swat team while her peers tried to contact their parents. She found her father and brother in a public in the street.
Although the Parkland shooter has targeted the school – not the college where she was badin – she had a moment Thursday when she made even if she survived the shooting seven years ago, she might not be able to survive too.
While they hid in the bowling office, she started hearing rumors on the shooting and the victims. She had met friends on the first day of the bowling class who had discussed throughout the semester. Now they have sheds into the corner of the small office together frightened for their lives.
There was an office in the room with a computer, where she could see a warning message informing people to shelter in place.
It looked like a long period of hiding place and refreshing social media before the police arrive. After checking her texts with her father, she realized that it was in fact only 15 minutes.
While the police escaped her outside the student union, she saw a person injured on the ground surrounded by police and doctors.
“I just remember getting out of the doors and I saw it immediately and my heart started beating a little faster. I said to myself, Wow, people are actually seriously injured. ”
While the other students moved away from the student union and nearby buildings, Badiner started to panic because she did not know if the shooter had still been caught.
Finally, Badiner was able to return safely at home in his house outside campus.
She has not yet cried and thinks that it may be because she is still in shock. She thinks that tears will come when she learns more about the victims.
She attended a vigil for the victims on Friday evening, even if she was a little nervous at the idea of being in an open space with so many people.
Badiner, who graduated from FSU in May, said that she was frustrated that she crosses some of these feelings a second time.
“I really think there are things that could be changed. I am not well informed about the specific laws (GUN) that are put in place, but I have the feeling that someone can do something to keep us safe,” she said.
Similar to seven years ago, Badiner decided to sleep with a warmer candle Thursday evening, almost like a night light, so she did not sleep in total darkness.
