A student arrested after two people were killed and six more injured in a shooting on Florida State University’s Tallahassee campus is the son of a sheriff’s deputy, cops say.
Phoenix Ikner, 20, was taken into custody after Thursday’s shooting, police revealed at a press conference.
Cops say he used a former service weapon owned by his mother to carry out the deadly attack. It has since been reported that Ikner had spent time training with law enforcement himself. It has also emerged that Ikner endured a “tumultuous childhood”, with another woman identified in court records as his biological mother accused of taking him abroad in March 2015 without his father’s consent when he was just 10 years old.
Ikner suffered “significant injuries” and is expected to be in the hospital for a while, Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said Friday, before stressing: “Once he is released from that facility, he’ll be taken to a local detention facility where he will face the charges up to and including first-degree murder."
Below, we look at everything we know about the suspect and the attack:
Who is the suspected shooter?
Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil named FSU undergraduate Phoenix Ikner, a political science major, as the shooter. Ikner is the son of Leon County Deputy Jessica Ikner.
Deputy Ikner has been on the force for 18 years and also works as a school resource officer. Her profile appeared to have been removed from the Leon County Sheriff's Office website as of Thursday evening.
The 20-year-old was a long-standing member of the agency’s Youth Advisory Council, McNeil said, and was part of the sheriff’s office “family.” He added that it was “not a surprise” that Ikner had access to firearms, given his mother’s job.
“This event is tragic in more ways than you people in the audience could ever fathom from a law enforcement perspective,” the sheriff said.
“But I will tell you this, we will make sure we send a message to folks that this will never be tolerated here in Leon County, and I dare say, across this state and across this nation.”
A fellow member of the Youth Advisory Council described Ikner to The New York Times as always “in good spirits,” helpful and always proposing “really good ideas to help Leon County.” He added that Ikner “never spoke about guns or anything.”
What is his background?
It was revealed on Friday that Ikner had a “tumultuous childhood,” including a fraught custody battle between his biological parents. It was suggested in court filings that the dispute had caused emotional and psychological harm that would be “evident for years.”
“Given the child being the age of 11, will have memory impacted by the behaviors of all the defendants for the false claims done on his mother, and for the parental alienation of the close relationship of the minor child,” the documents stated.
Ikner was originally named Christian Eriksen and Anne-Mari Eriksen is identified in court records as his biological mother. She was accused of taking him to Norway in March 2015 in violation of a custody agreement.
Anne-Mari Eriksen, who has joint U.S.-Norwegian citizenship, pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 200 days in jail, 170 of which she had already served, followed by two years of “community control” and two years of probation, according to the records.
She was ordered to have no contact with her son during that time but later attempted to vacate her plea, saying it had been made under duress, only for her appeal to be denied. It is unclear if the pair had had contact recently.
According to the Daily Mail, Eriksen posted Thursday on Facebook attacking her son’s father and new partner, Deputy Ikner, for their parenting and failure to communicate with her about the shooting before subsequently deleting the message.
Speaking to ABC News Friday, she described the moment she heard that her son was the suspected shooter.
"When I heard what had happened, I was frantic -- thought he might be the one hurt. And then when I found out it was him I just collapsed at work," Eriksen told the outlet. "There’s so much that needs to be said about this, but I just can’t talk without crying. We need time to process all this."
Susan Eriksen, Ikner’s maternal grandmother, blamed the 20-year-old’s father and stepmother for having a negative influence over the “smartest, sweetest kid.”
“They taught him how to hunt, they’re bigoted people, they hated a lot of people,” the 79-year-old told the Daily Mail, noting that she hadn’t seen the suspect in a decade.
What was his motive?
Investigators have not yet revealed a motive for the shooting, with Revell telling reporters on Thursday that Ikner had invoked his right not to speak to investigators.
Revell stressed his belief that the suspect had acted alone and that there was no further threat to the public.
Meanwhile, classmates say he had espoused “white supremacist and far-right rhetoric” for years prior to Thursday’s killing. A former president of Tallahassee State’s political discourse club, whose meetings Ikner attended, said he had been asked to leave after clashing with other members.
Reid Seybold told NBC News that the suspect was a fervent Donald Trump supporter who shared far-right views, including promoting white supremacy, which had made other members of the club uncomfortable and ultimately led to his expulsion.
Seybold said Ikner’s politics went “beyond conservatism” and explained: “He had continually made enough people uncomfortable where certain people had stopped coming. That’s kind of when we reached the breaking point with Phoenix, and we asked him to leave.
“It’s been a couple of years now. I can’t give exact quotes. He talked about the ravages of multiculturalism and communism and how it’s ruining America.”
According to online records, Ikner lives in Tallahassee, 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.”
In addition, an Instagram account attributed to Ikner featured a disturbing quote from the Bible’s Book of Jeremiah, declaring: “You are my war club, my weapons for battle, with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.” The account has since been taken down.
What happened during the shooting?
FSU police locked the campus down after reports of an active shooter emerged around midday on Thursday and instructed students to shelter in place.
“An active shooter has been reported in the area of Student Union,” the university said on X.
“Police are on scene or on the way. Continue to seek shelter and await further instructions. Lock and stay away from all doors and windows and be prepared to take additional protective measures.”
Multiple gunshots were reported, with eyewitness Mckenzie Heeter later saying she had seen a figure in an orange T-shirt and khaki shorts who looked like “a normal college dude” firing as many as 15 rounds on passersby from an orange Hummer.
Law enforcement officers descended on the institution and social media was flooded with clips of students and faculty members cowering beneath desks and fleeing with their hands up, with many leaving behind rucksacks and picnics abandoned on the college lawn.
“I could have sworn I saw a cop running after somebody and screaming something when we ran out,” witness Will Schatz told The Tallahessee Democrat of his experience being evacuated from the Strozier Library.
“Then when I got out, I heard seven to eight gunshots. I’m not sure if that was the shooter shooting or if the cops shot the shooter.”
Finally, reports emerged at around 1: 15 p.m. that a suspect had been taken into custody.
Who are the victims?
Although authorities refrained from revealing many details about the individuals who were killed, family members have since come forward.
Robert Morales and Tiru Chabba were identified as the two men killed in the shooting.
Morales was a father, husband and employee of FSU who worked in dining services, his older sibling said in a social media post. The FSU community paid tribute to him in an emotional vigil on Friday evening.
Morales “didn’t just do the job, he lived the job,” Kyle Clark, the university’s vice president said at the vigil. “He was dedicated to the mission of service and care for the Florida State University community...he made our dining experience feel like home for every student, especially those from South Florida.”
Morales also worked as an assistant coach for the Leon High School football team. He led the team with “dedication, integrity and a true passion for mentoring young athletes,” the athletics department said in a statement. “His commitment to the game and to shaping the lives of his players extended far beyond the field. He was a trusted coach, a respected colleague, and a cherished friend to many.”
Morales was also a founding member of a well-known Tallahassee restaurant called Gordos. The owner said they were “deeply saddened” by the tragedy.
Chabba, 45, didn’t work at FSU, but happened to be there on Thursday as an employee of a campus vendor when the attack took place, attorney’s for his family said Friday.
The father of two was a resident of Greenville, South Carolina.
Chabba’s family “is going through the unimaginable now,” Bakari Sellers, a renowned civil rights attorney hired by the family, said. “Instead of hiding Easter eggs and visiting with friends and family, they’re living a nightmare where this loving father and devoted husband was stolen from them in an act of senseless and preventable violence.”
Six others were transported to Florida’s Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare in the wake of the incident. Five were wounded by gunfire while the sixth was injured while attempting to run away from the shooting, Revell said in a Thursday statement.
As of Friday morning, two victims were expected to be discharged later in the day, while three “have improved and are in good condition” and one remained in “fair condition,” a spokesperson for the hospital told the Washington Post.
Madison Askins, a 23-year-old FSU graduate student, told ABC News that she was shot in the buttocks before being forced to “play dead” to avoid the gunman.
Askins and her friend were walking on campus when her friend "took off running” at the sound of gunshots. "Unfortunately, I fell," she told the outlet. The friend tried to help her up but As her friend tried to help her up, Askins was struck. The friend ran, which Askins said was “valid.”
At one point, she thought the gunman had walked away, so she planned on reaching for her phone to contact her loved ones: “I wanted to call my dad, tell him I loved him.”
She didn’t. Instead, she said she heard the gunman getting closer and reloading his firearm. She recalled him saying calmly: "Keep running."
"I know for certain if I was moving he would've shot me again," she said, adding that she did not “entertain” the thought of dying.
Richard McCullough, FSU president, issued a statement following the tragedy. “We are heartbroken. We are grieving with the families, friends, and loved ones of those who were lost. We are holding close those who are injured, and we are standing by everyone who is hurting,” he said.
Ikner was also treated at the hospital after law enforcement shot him after he refused to comply with their commands, police have said. He is suffering “significant” injuries but is expected to survive, authorities said.
Student Emily Palmer told the same network from the safety of her student housing in the aftermath of the assault: “I’m shaking… It’s just a lot going on. I’m concerned about my friends.”
