JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It was like any other Monday morning, except this week when Don Halleck looked up at the TV at the gym he saw not just his son’s school, the University of Central Florida, but his dorm, Tower 1, splashed all over the news.
“It's frightening. I'm looking at it and the more I 'm looking I see my son's dorm and I'm going 'what the heck is going on',” said Halleck.
Turns out, Halleck’s 20-year-old son Jordon had been living right next door to a dorm room best described as an arsenal.
This week, police found James Seevakumaran dead from a self-inflicted gunshot in his room. Two weapons were on the floor, along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a backpack filled with explosives. Police say Seevakumaran, 30, had planned to go on a deadly rampage on campus.
Halleck says his son, along with many who lived on that same floor, are still struggling to return to the rooms they once considered safe.
"None of them are going back. I mean they're psychologically traumatized because of what very easily could have happened,” said Halleck. “My wife and I just thank our lucky stars that my son wasn't hurt and it wasn’t the mass tragedy that it very easily could have been."
Seevaukumaran had not enrolled for the spring semester. The university is looking into why he was still living on campus.
