Latest news with #D'Onofrio
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Vincent D'Onofrio teases ‘Daredevil: Born Again' Season 2 is ‘even more complex and more dangerous'
It took time for Daredevil: Born Again to figure out what kind of show it wanted to be. Stars Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio started reprising their roles as Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Wilson Fisk/Kingpin in 2021, with respective cameos in other Marvel Cinematic Universe projects like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Hawkeye. That meant working within the tones of those stories, but when the two characters finally reunited, their actors knew they needed to return to the flavor of the previous Daredevil series (which originally streamed on Netflix before moving to Disney+). 'Our jobs as actors are to service the story,' D'Onofrio tells Gold Derby during a brief break from filming Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again. 'It's my job to match the tone of whatever they're doing, because otherwise it'll look odd. So each time I played him, we got closer to the darker aspect, which I think really suits him — like, Echo got a little more gritty [than Hawkeye]. And so then we were going to do a show that was even less dark, but we realized early on that this wasn't working, that it had to be more like the original show.' More from GoldDerby Everything to know about HBO's 'Harry Potter' TV series - including the cast and controversy Grammys EP Ben Winston on the risks of producing live TV: 'I always never know quite why we do it' 'Ballerina' stumbles at the box office while 'Lilo & Stitch' surfs to another $32.5M D'Onofrio continues, 'so about six episodes in of the first season, we stopped and rethought things, and so now we're doing the show that we always wanted to do. We kept the idea that it was a shared show with two leads, which is different than the Netflix show, but I think it's interesting.' D'Onofrio is right that both Fisk and Murdock each feel like protagonists of their own story in Daredevil: Born Again, and one of the show's most interesting elements is that they hardly ever interact. Cox and D'Onofrio only shared the screen a couple times in Season 1, and each time they did (such as their Heat-worthy diner conversation in the premiere episode, or the climactic moment when Murdock unexpectedly took a bullet for Fisk) there were explosive consequences. According to D'Onofrio, viewers should expect that trend to continue into Season 2. Disney/Marvel 'We're sticking to the plan where the more you put these guys together, the less interesting it is,' D'Onofrio says, echoing what Cox has also told us. 'But there are a couple of, to say the least, very intense moments between the two of them in the second season.' D'Onofrio continues, 'It's sparse, but it's intense as hell. And there's a lot for fans to look forward to in the second season because it's, how can I put this? What we're doing in the second season, when we pair up Daredevil and Fisk in scenes, is even more complex and more dangerous than they've seen before. Some of the scenes that we're having in the second season, there's been nothing like them before.' Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again ended with both Murdock and Fisk reclaiming their roles (and signature costumes) as Daredevil and Kingpin, despite what they told each other in that diner. They've each got supporters, in the form of Daredevil's ragtag group of righteous prosecutors, fugitive vigilantes, and fearless reporters lining up against Mayor Fisk's anti-vigilante task force. This is a change from the original Daredevil series, which reset its plotlines every season. Though D'Onofrio is wary about letting spoilers out of the bag too soon, he confirms that Season 2 will build from there. 'We pick up where we left off, and things are just getting increasingly intense,' D'Onofrio says. 'At the end of the first season, he's declared martial law, and that doesn't go away. That gets even more intense, and there's a feeling of a resistance being formed with Charlie's side of the show. Aspects of that continue through the second season in very intense ways. So I really can't say much more than that, but the story continues to move forward.' The prospect of a supervillain like Kingpin successfully becoming mayor of New York City is frankly believable at a time when Donald Trump can get re-elected president after being impeached twice and Eric Adams, the real-life mayor of New York, can retain his office after being indicted by the FBI. But Fisk's power doesn't just come from his office. Why do the violent cops on his task force follow him so loyally? 'It's very clear that it's harder to be good than it is to be bad, and that makes us who we are as people,' D'Onofrio says. 'Are we willing to struggle to keep our morality? I think a lot of us are, but unfortunately, there are people that don't want to work so hard. They just want what they want, and they don't want to work for it. They just want to steal it. So I think that's what's happening. I think that his henchmen on the task force are following suit. Fisk wants to stretch his reach and they want to follow because it's easy.' But if the characters want things the easy way, the actors don't. After the creative reboot on Daredevil: Born Again got everyone in the cast and crew on the same page, they've all gone full steam ahead. 'It is a very hard show to do because you've got two very interesting main characters that live in the light and in the dark, and that's a tough script to write,' D'Onofrio says. 'So we're doing everything we need to do to struggle through them, get them right, and keep trying to do the best we can do. We're all working our butts off, the whole crew and all the actors.' D'Onofrio continues, 'We're also super lucky. We have such an amazing cast of supporting actors. I've made a career out of being a supporting actor, and it's so nice to see these young people who are supporting in our cast be such good actors and really brave and trying to do all kinds of things to make our stories more interesting. It just seems to be gelling out really well. It's quite a crew.' Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again is streaming now on Disney+. Best of GoldDerby Marlon Wayans on laughing through tragedy in 'Good Grief' and why social media has made comedy 'toxic' Minha Kim 'confronted all new emotions that I had never anticipated' in Season 2 of 'Pachinko' 'Étoile': Exclusive 4-part conversation with creators, star Luke Kirby, cinematographer, and choreographer Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Vincent D'Onofrio reveals what he is still learning about Kingpin after 10 years
The release of Daredevil: Born Again earlier this year almost exactly matched the 10th anniversary of the original Daredevil show's premiere on Netflix. But even after a decade of playing supervillain Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, Vincent D'Onofrio is still learning things about his character 'every day.' 'As an actor, every day you go to work, something new happens,' D'Onofrio tells Gold Derby during a brief break from filming Daredevil: Born Again Season 2. 'You either fail and learn something from that, or you succeed and learn something from that. And throughout the day, both things can happen. So, yeah, I'm totally, constantly learning about Fisk and about how to execute the character. That never stops, it's continuous.' More from GoldDerby 'Difficult times,' 'screaming matches,' and 'abandonment': David Duchovny and Chris Carter rehash their drama on 'The X-Files' Emma D'Arcy takes a break from filming 'House of the Dragon' Season 3 to talk riding dragons, 'Westerosi jet lag,' and Season 2's 'momentous' moments Jason Schwartzman on the breakneck 'Mountainhead' production: 'I've never done anything like it in my life' Of course, it helps to have new material to play, and Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again put both D'Onofrio and his character in a whole new place after Fisk successfully ran for mayor of New York City. During a rare meet-up with his rival Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) in the premiere episode, Fisk promised that he was done with his criminal ways and ready to be an upright politician. But D'Onofrio knew that things wouldn't go that way, even if his character didn't. 'You can't take these characters and then suddenly turn them into good people, or even less complicated people,' D'Onofrio says. 'I knew that the idea of putting him in the light and having him run for mayor was going to cause a lot of frustration and a lot of struggle for that character. As the actor, I knew that it would never work out. I even felt that putting him in those situations were some of the most difficult things to play. To put a broken person, who really belongs in the dark, in the light is an interesting choice. As the actor, I could feel the frustration of it. I didn't like it myself, but it was good to play it that way.' But despite Fisk's new office, there's also plenty of continuity in the form of his wife, Vanessa Fisk. Though Sandrine Holt was originally cast to play Vanessa during the first attempt at Daredevil: Born Again, after the show's creative revamp the role was recast with Ayelet Zurer (who had played Vanessa on the original Daredevil series), and she and D'Onofrio picked up where they left off. 'Ayelet Zurer is an amazing actress,' D'Onofrio says. 'I've known her for years now, we're very close friends, and to work with her is incredible. Vanessa helps a lot to tell Wilson Fisk's story, like it did in the comics years ago. It defines who he is as a man, not just as a villain.' Vanessa is her husband's moral compass, but not in a good way. During the time he's been absent from New York City (depicted in the Disney+ series Echo), Vanessa took control of his criminal empire, and she's the one who helps him re-embrace his Kingpin side even after becoming mayor. 'Whenever you show somebody that's supposedly a bad guy and you humanize him, it's more scary for everybody,' D'Onofrio says. 'So we did whatever we could in the first season to humanize Fisk, to make sure that people understood that he was a man who didn't consider himself to be a villain, but that the actor who plays him considers him to be broken.' Criminal mayors are not relegated solely to the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eric Adams, the real-life mayor of New York City, was indicted last year on criminal corruption charges from the FBI. 'I don't have any interest in all that,' D'Onofrio says. 'I have my own personal views about all that, but I don't connect those to the show in any way. I think other people may or may not, that's up to them, but I've been playing this character a long time now, and I'm on that track. I'm on that evolution of the character. If it's somehow, in some uncanny way, following what's going on out there in the world, then I guess that's all the better for everybody. That means it's good storytelling, and if people are getting pissed about it or happy about it, that's good storytelling.' Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again is streaming now on Disney+. Best of GoldDerby Jacob Elordi reveals personal reason for joining 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North': 'It was something important to me' Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez on how the 'Agatha All Along' cast 'became a coven' when recording 'The Ballad of the Witches' Road' Jason Schwartzman on the breakneck 'Mountainhead' production: 'I've never done anything like it in my life' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After FSU shooting, outrage erupts over Florida Legislature's inaction on gun regulations
Frustration and disappointment with the Florida Legislature's willingness to repeal gun regulations inspired by the 2018 Parkland school shooting are coming to the surface following the April 17 shooting at the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee. Red flags are being waved at the state Capitol by university students, and Democratic lawmakers over the Legislature's refusal to consider measures restricting access to firearms while advancing proposals to make it easier to buy and sell them. The FSU shooting was the fifth mass shooting in Florida this year. According to the Gun Violence Archive, mass shootings have claimed 10 lives in the state in the first four months of the year, and 36 in the past two years. Meanwhile, the Florida House has approved a bill to lower the age of gun purchases, and the Senate has advanced a proposal to create what appears to be the longest sales tax holiday in history for firearms and ammunition purchases. Just three weeks before the FSU shooting, the Florida House voted to repeal a prohibition approved after the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre to prevent people younger than 21-years of age from buying rifles and other long guns. And less than 48 hours before the FSU shooting, a Senate committee approved a four-month-long sales tax holiday for guns and ammunition. Twenty-year-old Jayden D'Onofrio asked lawmakers to think about what they were about to do when they considered a provision in a 95-page local option tax bill that creates a Second Amendment tax cut. 'You all are giving a sale tax cut to potential violent people on the most dangerous things they could access – guns and ammunition,' said D'Onofrio, a Tallahassee State College sophomore majoring in political science. D'Onofrio and nine other TSC and FSU students, members of a group called Florida's Future Leaders, testified against the tax cut to no avail. A tape of the meeting shows chair Sen. Bryan Avila, R-Miami, nodding seemingly in agreement while the students spoke. Avila thanked them for their remarks and told them his office door is always open. Former Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, told the group 'You make some really good points.' But when Avila and Passidomo both voted for the bill, D'Onofrio found their comments 'worse than patronizing.' 'You cannot possibly justify telling a group of people who are affected by your legislation the most, because we've lived it, that they are absolutely making great points and then go on and do nothing about it,' D'Onofrio said. The Weston native was in the 7th grade when the Parkland shooting took place 15 minutes from his middle school, and now he lives two blocks from FSU. 'They didn't even muddy it down. They railroaded it to the next committee on a party-line vote. I find it all disgusting,' D'Onofrio said. In contrast to the clear sailing the tax cut and repeal of the age restriction for rifles have enjoyed, there are five proposals to make guns and ammunition less accessible that haven't had one committee hearing that D'Onofrio intends to use to test Avila's open door policy. They include bills that would repeal preemption of gun regulations to the state and allow local governments to pass their own gun regulations. There are also proposals to mandate the safe storage of firearms and more extensive background checks for purchases. And lawmakers could debate a Gun Ownership Act, which sets requirements for all sales and transfers of firearms, and Jaime's Law, named after a Parkland victim and requires background checks use the FBI National Instant Background Check System to screen purchasers. All the proposals were filed by Democrats. None have gotten a hearing this session. 'This happens year after year. Our caucus files good, common sense gun laws that the Republican majority refuses to give a hearing. If we have the time to rename the Gulf of Mexico, we have the time to talk about one of the leading causes of deaths in our country,' said Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, the House Democratic Leader. In April, Florida became the first state to implement President Donald Trump's executive order renaming the body of water bordering the U.S., Mexico, and Cuba the Gulf of America. Outnumbered 86 - 33, Driskell and the Democrats have been unable to stop House Republicans from trying to repeal a minimum age requirement of 21 to purchase a rifle and long guns. The restriction was among a series of gun control proposals enacted following the Parkland shooting when U.S. Sen. Rick Scott was governor. There were three mass shootings in Florida during the Scott administration, the 2018 Parkland massacre, along with one in 2016 at the Pulse Nightclub where 49 died, and the 2014 shooting at FSU's Strozier Library. 'What I tried to do as governor was to work on legislation that we know can make us safe,' Scott said after visiting hospitalized students recovering from America's latest school shooting. Florida is one of eight states that requires buyers of rifles and long guns to be 21, and the NRA immediately filed a lawsuit, claiming the restriction was unconstitutional. Once the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the NRA challenge, the Florida House passed a repeal, which the Florida Senate did not approve last year. In March, the House again passed a repeal, which the Senate has yet to consider. 'I believe in the legislation we passed. We worked hard to get that passed, but every Legislature gets to decide what they want to do,' Scott said. Other than expressing sorrow and condolences, Republican lawmakers have said little about gun legislation still pending in the House and Senate chambers. The volume on the issue may rise as the legislative session enters its final phase, which often sees a blitz of legislation pass both chambers. On Wednesday, volunteers with the Florida chapters of Students Demand Action, along with Team Enough and state lawmakers, will march from Florida State University to the State Capitol to call on lawmakers to do more to protect students from gun violence. 'This tragedy is not a political statement; however, it becomes a political issue when poor policy fails to stop a completely preventable loss of life‚' FSU's College Democrats President Madalyn Propst said in a statement. Here is the status of gun bills filed for the 2025 legislative session. Lawmakers are scheduled to finish the 60-day gathering May 2, but could go well past that amid inter-party feuding between the House and governor. HB 65: Requires firearm sales or transfers to be conducted through licensed dealer and mandates stricter requirements for storage of firearms. SB 238/ HB 6003: Gun Regulation Preemption is a perennial bill filed by Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton to repeal the preemption of local gun regulations to the state. It has yet to be scheduled for a hearing SB 252/HB 1096: The 'Responsible Gun Ownership Act'; requires background checks on all persons involved in a firearm sale or other transfer and increases criminal penalties. SB 254/1621: Defines the term 'machine gun' and ties bump-fire stock violations to the Criminal Punishment Code. SB 256/HB 53: Creates Jaime's Law, named for a Marjory Stoneman Douglas 17-year-old victim, would require more extensive background checks for firearms purchases. SB 1234/HB 6013: Repeal prohibitions on bump stocks, a modification that enables a rifle to be rapid fire. SB 814/HB 31: Would have allowed concealed weapons on college and university campuses. Failed in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee when Sen. Illeana Garcia, R-Miami, joined with three Democrats to reject the proposal by former Senator and now Congressman Randy Fine. HB 759: Lowers the minimum age for purchasing a rifle from 21 to 18. Passed the House and awaits action by the Senate, where it appears to have stalled amid concerns by the Senate President. SB 490/ HB 383: Allows Law Enforcement Officers, Correctional Officers, Correctional Probation Officers, and Military Servicemembers to carry concealed weapons while off duty passed the House and awaits senate action. SB 1664: A provision in an omnibus local tax option proposal would create a four-month sales tax holiday for the purchase of firearms and ammunition. Has passed two committees and is one stop from the Senate floor. James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@ and is on X as @CallTallahassee. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU shooting sparks outcry for gun reform in Florida Legislature
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Yahoo
Emergency alerts, desks barricading doors, shoes abandoned in the grass: How the FSU mass shooting upended the campus
It was an ordinary afternoon for Jayden D'Onofrio, who was spending time with a friend at their apartment complex when they received a text that made their blood run cold. An active shooter was on campus, and their friend was hiding in the library. Without a second thought, they ran to her. A perfect, sun-drenched Florida spring day had suddenly descended into horror when a gunman began firing at victims near Florida State University's student union building, marking the next chapter in America's grim epidemic of gun violence. 'That is one of the most gutting feelings possible, to not know if your friends are okay… and if they're going to make it through that moment,' D'Onofrio told CNN. 'There's no words to sort of describe that feeling and that experience.' Another college campus – and thousands of students – are now scarred by the lasting trauma of gun violence, transforming the once-idyllic lawns, where students usually gather with books and coffee, into a dreadful reminder of where innocent lives were taken. Two weeks before the semester's end, just as seniors were gearing up for graduation, two people were killed and five others injured when the suspect, a student at the university and the son of a local sheriff, police said, opened fire. D'Onofrio is no stranger to the reality of how gun violence can tear a community apart. Thursday's shooting comes seven years after the bloodbath in Parkland, Florida, when a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killed 17 people and wounded 17 others, ripping the community apart. He was in his 7th grade English class when he got the phone notification that there was a shooting 15 minutes away from his school. Following the massacre, D'Onofrio had school shooting drills every month growing up, he says, 'and this is just another chapter of that.' As the university went into lockdown, students and staff received emergency alerts urging them to shelter in place. Inside the buildings, students crouched beneath desks, texting loved ones in fear. In one classroom, they piled desks against the door in an attempt to barricade themselves. 'I saw this police officer with an assault rifle, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is real,'' Holden Mamula told CNN. He was in his calculus class when he heard sirens in the distance and an active shooter alert sounded on campus. The political science and statistics major texted his parents and sat on his knees, preparing to run, as classmates hid behind desks and turned off the lights. 'It's insane to me how we keep having these incidents, after incidents, after incidents, of just mass shootings,' Mamula said, describing the experience as traumatizing. 'I don't think you feel the emotion until you've been through that.' A video taken by a student who hid behind a bush during the attack captured someone's body lying still in the grass as others frantically scrambled to dodge bullets, their screams filling the air while gunshots rang out, one after another. McKenzie Heeter was leaving the student union when she saw an orange Hummer parked nearby on a service road. She then saw a man next to the car holding 'a larger gun,' when he 'let off a shot' in her general direction, where other people were also walking. She witnessed the man turn around and pull a handgun out of the car, turn toward the student union and shoot a woman wearing purple scrubs in the back. 'When he turned to the woman and shot her, that's when I realized, there was no target. And that it was anybody he could see,' Heeter said. 'And I took off.' She started running until she made it back to her apartment, around a mile away. For the first 20 seconds, she heard continuous gunfire. 'It was just shot after shot after shot,' she said. Meanwhile, ambulances and a swarm of police vehicles sped toward campus, their sirens swallowing the calm that had existed just moments before. Students lounging on the lush lawns of the university's sprawling Tallahassee campus were sent fleeing for their lives, abandoning their shoes and backpacks in the grass. Many of those fleeing ran to the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More, a church across the street from Florida State University, where the priest was helping terrified people find shelter. Father Luke Farabaugh was attending a staff birthday party when he heard pops, which gave him a bad feeling, he said. People started pouring into the cathedral with 'a fear that I had never seen before,' Farabaugh said. 'It was surreal to be thrust into a life-and-death situation.' Once the all-clear was issued hours after the shooting, streams of students, some with their hands in the air, were evacuated from campus buildings and brought to safe locations, where many were seen collapsing into hugs and breaking down in tears. 'You go to school to get your degree, make friends, you make memories, not to go to school to experience stuff like this,' FSU student Garrett Harvey told CNN from a building where he had been evacuated to with hundreds of other students. D'Onofrio shared the sentiment, saying he managed to get his friend — who was in shock — to safety. 'This isn't normal. It keeps happening, again and again,' he said. 'It's depressing, and there's no real action being taken to change it, especially here in Florida.' Gun violence in the US has turned into a relentless crisis, claiming lives daily and leaving shattered communities to pick up the pieces every time. There have been 81 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. As students returned to collect the belongings they'd left behind while fleeing the gunfire, evidence markers dotted the lawn near the student union building, where shell casings lay scattered in the grass. On the night of the shooting, a mass was held at the church where people fled for safety. What was meant to be a joyous time for the community as Easter approaches, Farabaugh said, turned into tragedy. 'We will be entering into this Holy Week in a different way this year,' Farabaugh added. 'I don't have any spiritual conclusions. I only say that as we enter into this service, many of us were thrust into service today.' CNN's Sara Smart, Nick Valencia, Dalia Faheid, Elise Hammond and Asya McDonald contributed to this report.
CNN
18-04-2025
- CNN
Emergency alerts, desks barricading doors, shoes abandoned in the grass: How the FSU mass shooting upended the campus
It was an ordinary afternoon for Jayden D'Onofrio, who was spending time with a friend at their apartment complex when they received a text that made their blood run cold. An active shooter was on campus, and their friend was hiding in the library. Without a second thought, they ran to her. A perfect, sun-drenched Florida spring day had suddenly descended into horror when a gunman began firing at victims near Florida State University's student union building, marking the next chapter in America's grim epidemic of gun violence. 'That is one of the most gutting feelings possible, to not know if your friends are okay… and if they're going to make it through that moment,' D'Onofrio told CNN. 'There's no words to sort of describe that feeling and that experience.' Another college campus – and thousands of students – are now scarred by the lasting trauma of gun violence, transforming the once-idyllic lawns, where students usually gather with books and coffee, into a dreadful reminder of where innocent lives were taken. Two weeks before the semester's end, just as seniors were gearing up for graduation, two people were killed and five others injured when the suspect, a student at the university and the son of a local sheriff, police said, opened fire. D'Onofrio is no stranger to the reality of how gun violence can tear a community apart. Thursday's shooting comes seven years after the bloodbath in Parkland, Florida, when a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killed 17 people and wounded 17 others, ripping the community apart. He was in his 7th grade English class when he got the phone notification that there was a shooting 15 minutes away from his school. Following the massacre, D'Onofrio had school shooting drills every month growing up, he says, 'and this is just another chapter of that.' As the university went into lockdown, students and staff received emergency alerts urging them to shelter in place. Inside the buildings, students crouched beneath desks, texting loved ones in fear. In one classroom, they piled desks against the door in an attempt to barricade themselves. 'I saw this police officer with an assault rifle, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is real,'' Holden Mamula told CNN. He was in his calculus class when he heard sirens in the distance and an active shooter alert sounded on campus. The political science and statistics major texted his parents and sat on his knees, preparing to run, as classmates hid behind desks and turned off the lights. 'It's insane to me how we keep having these incidents, after incidents, after incidents, of just mass shootings,' Mamula said, describing the experience as traumatizing. 'I don't think you feel the emotion until you've been through that.' A video taken by a student who hid behind a bush during the attack captured someone's body lying still in the grass as others frantically scrambled to dodge bullets, their screams filling the air while gunshots rang out, one after another. McKenzie Heeter was leaving the student union when she saw an orange Hummer parked nearby on a service road. She then saw a man next to the car holding 'a larger gun,' when he 'let off a shot' in her general direction, where other people were also walking. She witnessed the man turn around and pull a handgun out of the car, turn toward the student union and shoot a woman wearing purple scrubs in the back. 'When he turned to the woman and shot her, that's when I realized, there was no target. And that it was anybody he could see,' Heeter said. 'And I took off.' She started running until she made it back to her apartment, around a mile away. For the first 20 seconds, she heard continuous gunfire. 'It was just shot after shot after shot,' she said. Meanwhile, ambulances and a swarm of police vehicles sped toward campus, their sirens swallowing the calm that had existed just moments before. Students lounging on the lush lawns of the university's sprawling Tallahassee campus were sent fleeing for their lives, abandoning their shoes and backpacks in the grass. Many of those fleeing ran to the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More, a church across the street from Florida State University, where the priest was helping terrified people find shelter. Father Luke Farabaugh was attending a staff birthday party when he heard pops, which gave him a bad feeling, he said. People started pouring into the cathedral with 'a fear that I had never seen before,' Farabaugh said. 'It was surreal to be thrust into a life-and-death situation.' Once the all-clear was issued hours after the shooting, streams of students, some with their hands in the air, were evacuated from campus buildings and brought to safe locations, where many were seen collapsing into hugs and breaking down in tears. 'You go to school to get your degree, make friends, you make memories, not to go to school to experience stuff like this,' FSU student Garrett Harvey told CNN from a building where he had been evacuated to with hundreds of other students. D'Onofrio shared the sentiment, saying he managed to get his friend — who was in shock — to safety. 'This isn't normal. It keeps happening, again and again,' he said. 'It's depressing, and there's no real action being taken to change it, especially here in Florida.' Gun violence in the US has turned into a relentless crisis, claiming lives daily and leaving shattered communities to pick up the pieces every time. There have been 81 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. As students returned to collect the belongings they'd left behind while fleeing the gunfire, evidence markers dotted the lawn near the student union building, where shell casings lay scattered in the grass. On the night of the shooting, a mass was held at the church where people fled for safety. What was meant to be a joyous time for the community as Easter approaches, Farabaugh said, turned into tragedy. 'We will be entering into this Holy Week in a different way this year,' Farabaugh added. 'I don't have any spiritual conclusions. I only say that as we enter into this service, many of us were thrust into service today.'
