Florida student says books saved his life in campus library shooting

             Florida State University student Jason Derfuss didn't think to look at his book bag as he fled the university library where a gunman wounded three students early on Thursday.
Only later did Derfuss realized that his books may have saved his life.

"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," Derfuss wrote on Facebook.

The shooter was killed in an exchange of gunfire with lawenforcement at Florida State's Strozier Library at about 12:30 a.m. Derfuss later posted photos of bullet holes that pierced two of his books and left a mark on his book bag, along with the shiny bullet that he safely recovered.

Reuters could not immediately reach Derfuss, who escaped injury and whose story received wide attention as the latest in a string of shootings on U.S. campuses.

"The truth is I was almost killed tonight and God intervened," Derfuss wrote.

Police said they ordered the gunman to drop his weapon, then fatally shot him when he fired on them.

The shooter was attorney Myron May, a Florida State University alumnus, an unidentified law enforcement officer told the Associated Press. Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the shooter's identification.

One of the three wounded students, whose names have not beenreleased, was in critical condition, according to a spokeswoman at Tallahassee Memorial Health Care hospital. Another of the wounded was in good condition and the third suffered a graze wound, the spokeswoman said.