Florida man used sheriff deputy mother’s gun to kill two in university shooting
He was identified by police as Phoenix Ikner, son of deputy Jessica Ikner, who has been with the sheriff’s office for more than 18 years.
A man used his police officer mother’s gun to kill two people at Florida State University, police have said.
A further six have been taken to hospital with injuries in connection with the attack.
Police shot and wounded the gunman, who they identified as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, after he refused to comply with commands from officers.
Florida State University Police Chief Jason Trumbower said the gunman shot at individuals around the student union building.
He is believed to be a Florida State student.
Mr Trumbower said authorities would not be releasing information about the victims, including whether they were students, but did confirm the two people who were killed were not students at the university.
The injured were all in fair condition, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said in a Facebook post.
Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil revealed the alleged gunman’s identity and his relation to deputy Jessica Ikner, who has been with the sheriff’s office for more than 18 years.
Mr McNeil says the alleged gunman was a long-standing member of the sheriff’s office’s youth advisory council and engaged in a number of training programmes with the office.
“This is obviously a heinous crime,” Mr McNeil said.
“We will make sure that we do everything we can to prosecute and make sure that we send a message to folks that this will never be tolerated here in Leon County, and I dare say across the state and across this nation.”
Ikner was in the hospital with “serious but non-life-threatening injuries,” according to Mr Revell.
Asked about the shooting, US President Donald Trump said “it’s a shame”, adding that he knew the school and the area “very well”.
But Mr Trump suggested that he would not be advocating for any new gun legislation, saying: “The gun doesn’t do the shooting, the people do”.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Mr Trump called himself a “big advocate” of the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms.
“I have an obligation to protect the Second Amendment,” he said.
Florida State University cancelled classes on Friday, two weeks before the university’s scheduled commencement ceremony for graduates from May 2 to 3.
The university’s official finals week, per its academic calendar, is scheduled to start on April 28.
Jake Nair, a senior student at the university, was studying in the library when a police officer dashed out of the building, yelling for everyone to stay in place.
“He ran outside with his gun out,” Mr Nair said. “Not all the students heard him, and some of them ran out the back of the library.”
Mr Nair said an alarm in the library then went off and a recorded message warned students to shelter in place because of an active shooter on campus.
About five officers came into the library and escorted the students out with their hands up.
“I think they just wanted to make sure none of us had a weapon on us,” Mr Nair said. “To be honest, it was a bit of a surreal moment. It’s the kind of thing you only see on the news.”
Ryan Cedergren, a 21-year-old communications student, said he and about 30 others hid in the bowling alley in the union’s lower level after seeing students running from a nearby bar.
“In that moment, it was survival,” he said.
University president Richard McCullough said he was heartbroken by the violence.
“Our hearts go out to our students and the victims of this terrible tragedy,” he said.
As dusk fell over Florida State University, a small memorial of candles and bouquets of flowers had been set up outside the student union, while investigators’ yellow tape blocked off the nearby doors.
Florida State is one of the Sunshine State’s 12 public universities, with its main campus in Tallahassee. About 44,000 students are enrolled in the university, according to the school’s 2024 fact sheet.
In 2014, the main library was the site of a shooting that wounded three people. Officers shot and killed the gunman, 31-year-old Myron May.
