Classmates of the suspected Florida State University gunman say he espoused “white supremacist and far-right rhetoric” for years prior to Thursday killing, where two people were killed and six more were injured.
Phoenix Ikner, 20, got into arguments with fellow students over “gross” things he said in class, and was known to take his comments “up to the line.” He also reportedly boasted of the fact that he had access to firearms at home.
In a press conference, shortly after Ikner was taken into custody, it was revealed that he is the son of a Leon County Sheriff’s Office deputy, and that he had used a weapon owned by his mother to carry out the attack.
People who knew Ikner at FSU and before at Tallahassee State College said he was known for touting right-wing conspiracy theories and other hateful rhetoric.
“I got into arguments with him in class over how gross the things he said were,” Lucas Luzietti, a politics student who shared a class with Ikner in 2023, told USA TODAY. He told the outlet that Ikner subscribed to the theory that Joe Biden had come into office illegally.
According to online records, Ikner registered as a Republican in 2022 and voted in last November’s presidential election. Earlier this year, he was interviewed by his campus newspaper about anti-Trump protests taking place on the FSU grounds.
“These people are usually pretty entertaining, usually not for good reasons,” he told the outlet at the time. “I think it’s a little too late, he’s already going to be inaugurated on January 20 and there’s not really much you can do unless you outright revolt, and I don’t think anyone wants that.”
Luzietti also claimed Ikner held racist views, including saying that “Rosa Parks was in the wrong” and Black people were ruining his neighborhood.
“I remember thinking this man should not have access to firearms,” Luzietti told USA TODAY. “[But] what are you supposed to do? His mother was a cop and Florida doesn’t have very strong red flag laws.”
Red flag laws prevent individuals who show signs of being a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing any kind of firearm.
“It's so sad and so shocking,” Luzietti added. “Then to see that it was him — I’m sadly not surprised.”
Reid Seybold, a senior at FSU, also knew Ikner from a political discussion group at Tallahassee State College. As the group's president, Seybold said Ikner was asked not to return to the group because of his radical views.
"Basically our only rule was no Nazis — colloquially speaking — and he espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric, and far-right rhetoric as well, to the point where we had to exercise that rule," Seybold said.
The current president of the same discussion club, Riley Pusins, said that at meetings Ikner was vocal in his support for Trump’s agenda and often promoted white supremacist values, despite the non-partisan nature of the club.
Pusins said Ikner had attended the club regularly as recently as last semester, and that others in the group had branded him as a fascist.
His apparent political views, are just part of the known background for the accused double-murder suspect. On Friday it emerged that Ikner was adopted, and that his birth name is Christian Gunnar Eriksen. Deputy Jessica Ikner is actually his stepmother.
Ikner’s biological mother appears to have separated from his father Christopher Ikner but ran into trouble in March 2015 when she took the boy to Norway without the latter’s consent, in violation of their custody arrangements.
Anne-Mari Eriksen was arrested when she returned to the U.S. via Fort Lauderdale Airport the following July and subsequently pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 200 days in jail. She was ordered to have no contact with her son during that time.
At the age of 10, Ikner attended Lincoln High School where he changed his name, according to CNN, apparently to make a clean break with his past.
An affidavit obtained by ABC News also notes that he was on medication for “several health and mental issues, to include a growth hormone disorder and ADHD.”
