TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Several thousand students, staff and faculty packed a plaza at Florida State University for a vigil Friday evening, bowing their heads in a moment of silence honoring the two people who were killed and six others who were wounded in a shooting rampage the previous day.
The gunman, identified as the stepson of a sheriff’s deputy, arrived on campus an hour before and stayed near a parking garage before he walked in and out of buildings and green spaces while firing a handgun just before lunchtime, police said.
In roughly four minutes, officers confronted 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, a Florida State student, and shot and wounded him, Tallahassee police said.
Officials have not identified , but family members said Robert Morales, a university dining coordinator, was one of them. He worked at Florida State since 2015 and studied criminology there in the early 1990s, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The other was Tiru Chabba, 45, a married father of two from Greenville, South Carolina, who was working for food service vendor Aramark, said Michael Wukela, a spokesperson for attorneys hired by the family.
Police have said five others were shot, and another person was hurt running away.
Medical staff at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare said they treated six people for gunshots, including three who were operated on, and all were expected to survive.
They would not give any information about those people's identities or say whether the suspect was among them. Police said earlier that he was taken to a local hospital.
Some of the wounded were students, according to university President Richard McCullough.
Classes were canceled Friday, but some students came to campus to retrieve backpacks and laptops they left behind when they barricaded classroom doors and eventually fled to safety.
“I don’t think any words can do it justice,†said Audrey Rothman, one of three members of the Florida State women’s volleyball team who brought flowers and held hands in a brief prayer circle.
Police believe Ikner used a former service weapon that belongs to his stepmother, an 18-year veteran of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Walt McNeil said. In recent years she has worked as a middle school resource officer and was the department’s employee of the month a year ago in March.
After the shooting she requested and was granted personal leave and also reassigned from her post at the school, said Shonda Knight, executive director of community and media relations for the agency.
Ikner’s earlier years
The suspect was a longstanding member of the Leon County Sheriff’s youth advisory council, police said. The group was created to build communication between young people and local law enforcement while also teaching teens leadership and team-building skills.
He was a junior at FSU studying political science after earning an associates degree last fall from Tallahassee State College, university spokeswoman Amy Farnum-Patronis confirmed.
Authorities have not yet revealed a motive.
When Ikner was a child, his parents were involved in several custody disputes with his biological mother, court records show.
In 2015, when he was 10, his biological mother, Anne-Mari Eriksen, said she was taking him to South Florida for spring break in 2015 but instead traveled to Norway. After returning to the U.S., she pleaded no contest to removing a minor from the state against a court order and was sentenced to 200 days in jail. She later moved to vacate her plea, but that was denied.
In the fall of that same year, Eriksen filed a civil libel-slander complaint against Jessica Ikner, along with several other family members. The complaint, which was later dismissed, accused them of harassing Eriksen and abusing Ikner’s position at the sheriff’s office.
In 2020, at age 15, the suspect received court approval to change his name from Christian Eriksen to Phoenix Ikner, court documents show. His old name was a constant reminder of a “tragedy†he suffered, in the words of administrative magistrate James Banks, who approved the request, NBC News reported.
Banks observed that Ikner was a “mentally, emotionally and physically mature young adult who is very articulate†and “very polite†said he chose the new name as a representation of “rising from the ashes anew.â€
Shooting was not the first at the school
The shooting erupted just a few hours before a forum on countering hate on campus was to take place in a classroom building nearby.
The event, titled “United Against Hate: Building a Safer Campus and Community Together,†was part of a project honoring Maura Binkley, a Florida State student who was at a yoga studio in 2018.
A few students who are now at Florida State also of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history at seven years ago in South Florida.
A few miles from the FSU campus, the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church began its Good Friday service with prayers for the shooting victims and families.
The Rev. R.B. Holmes said he visited the victims at the hospital with Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey, who also attended the service.
“We’re not going to emphasize the tragedy,†Holmes said. “We’re going to emphasize hope and healing. Our faith says we shall overcome. I said to the students, we will be there for them.â€
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Associated Press writers Stephany Matat in West Palm Beach, David Fischer in Fort Lauderdale, Michael Schneider in Orlando, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
