Yeah I thought about the same.

I think the another state part was partially covering up what he actually meant with the 'us' before it. The way he phrased it 'us' could mean either he was hoping the shooter wasn't a conservative or that it was an out of country/state citizen who was not his problem. I think he meant the conservative interpretation and added the out of state part as a rhetorical tactic to disguise or professionalize his real intent.

relevant quote for reference: “For 33 hours, I was … I was praying that if this had to happen here, that it wouldn’t be one of us. That somebody drove from another state, somebody came from another country,” he said. “Sadly, that prayer was not answered the way I hoped for. Just because I thought it would make it easier on us if we could just say ‘Hey, we don’t do that here.’”