The Strozier Library on the campus of Florida State University is back open after a shooting early Thursday morning, but the boarded up window out front is a reminder of what happened while hundreds of students were studying inside.
“We’re just here responding in God’s compassion, just knowing this is something nobody expected and nobody wants to go through,” said Kelly Burke, emergency response and logistics coordinator for the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team “It is a tragic event, where one life has been lost and others have been injured. It just shakes our foundations.”
Burke, who works at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, drove down to Tallahassee after a gunman opened fire at the library around 12:30 a.m., injuring three students before police officers shot and killed him.
As a crisis-trained chaplain, Burke travels to incidents like natural disasters and shootings to offer emotional and spiritual care to the communities involved. He has previously responded to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 and the 2013 wildfire that killed 19 Arizona firefighters.
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In this case, Burke has offered support to the FSU and Tallahassee police departments, both of which responded to the shooting and took action to stop the gunman.
A 25-year veteran of the Tallahassee Police Department who retired as a captain in 2007, Burke is back on familiar territory and already has relationships with both of the local police chiefs. At least three other crisis-trained chaplains from Tallahassee, including another former police officer and a police officer’s wife, are joining Burke on the Rapid Response Team deployment.
Their goal is to offer a listening ear and help meet emotional and spiritual needs that arise during times of crisis.
Outside of a packed Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) meeting on campus Thursday night, where FSU students were encouraged to talk and pray with one another, a young man approached Burke. He talked about how the shooting had caused him to look at life differently, and they spent a few minutes talking and praying.
The chaplains plan to be available throughout the weekend to spend time with anyone who may be reeling from what happened, including the officers who had to make a split-second decision to use deadly force against the shooter.
“Taking a life, that’s not why you got in the job,” Burke said. “I firmly believe they need prayer and they need support, and not just for them but their agency and their families, too.”
Just last month, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team held its first annual National Law Enforcement Retreat. Close to 250 law enforcement officers and their spouses attended the event in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, where they had a chance to learn about topics like “Serving and Protecting Your Family,” “Career Development without Compromise” and “Post-Traumatic Growth with God.”
After receiving an overwhelming response from the three-day event, the Rapid Response Team plans to hold another retreat next year as part of a continuing effort to serve those who protect and serve.
In the meantime, the chaplains want the FSU community to know they’re praying for them.
“We just want to offer the hope of Christ, and come alongside the faith organizations here,” Burke said. “And assure people that while their world may have changed and circumstances may have changed, God still has a future and a plan for them, and He still loves them.”
