2 killed, at least 6 wounded in mass shooting at Florida State University
Police say they shot and wounded the suspected shooter, ID'd as the 20-year-old son of a sheriff's deputy
The 20-year-old son of a sheriff's deputy opened fire Thursday at Tallahassee's Florida State University with his mother's former service weapon, killing two people and wounding at least six others, investigators said.
Officers who arrived on the scene shot and wounded the man after he refused to comply with commands, said Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell.
Authorities have not yet indicated if they have determined a motive for the shooting, which began around lunchtime just outside the student union, sending students and frightened parents running for cover in a bowling alley and a freight elevator inside the building.
The suspect, identified by police as Phoenix Ikner, is believed to be a Florida State student, investigators said.
The two people who died were not students at the university, said Jason Trumbower, chief of the Florida State University police department, adding that he would not release additional information about the victims.
Tallahassee Memorial Hospital confirmed it was treating six people wounded in the shooting, one who was in critical condition.
Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil said police believe the suspected shooter used the former service handgun belonging to his mother, a sheriff's deputy who kept the gun for personal use after the force upgraded to new weapons. McNeil noted that she has been with the sheriff's office for over 18 years and has been a model employee.
He also said the suspect was a long-standing member of the sheriff's office's youth advisory council.
"He has been steeped in the Leon County Sheriff's Office family, engaged in a number of training programs that we have," McNeil said. "So it's not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons."
Ambulances, fire trucks and patrol vehicles from multiple law enforcement agencies raced toward the campus just west of Florida's capital after the university issued an active shooter alert.
Aidan Stickney, a 21-year-old studying business management, was running late to class when he said he saw a man get out of a car with a shotgun and aim at another man in a white polo shirt.
The gun jammed, Stickney said, and the shooter rushed back to his car and emerged with a handgun, opening fire on a woman. Stickney ran, warning others as he called 911.
"I got lucky today," he said. "I really, really did."
Trumbower said investigators have no evidence that anyone was shot with the shotgun.
'In that moment, it was survival'
Frightened students and parents hid in a bowling alley and crammed into a freight elevator inside the student union after hearing gunshots outside the building.
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. After about 15 minutes, university police escorted the students out of the building, where Cedergren says he saw a person getting emergency treatment on the lawn.
Chris Pento told television station WCTV that he was on a campus tour with his twin children and that they were getting lunch at the student union when they heard gunshots.
"It was surreal. And people just started running," he said. They packed into a service elevator after encountering locked doors at the end of a hallway.
"That was probably the scariest point because we didn't know. It could get worse, right?" he said. "The doors opened and two officers were there, guns drawn."
Florida State's alert system announced about three hours after the shooting that law enforcement had "neutralized the threat."
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including a forensics van, were parked outside the student union hours after the shooting and officers blocked off the area with crime scene tape.
Students and staff who left behind phones, keys and other items in the rush to evacuate waited in the shade and prayed for the victims.
'It's a horrible thing': Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump said from the Oval Office that he had been fully briefed on the shooting. "It's a horrible thing. It's horrible that things like this take place," he said.
But Trump also suggested that he would not be advocating for any new gun legislation, saying, "The gun doesn't do the shooting, the people do."
After receiving warnings of an active shooter, students and faculty took cover and waited in classrooms, offices and dorms across campus.
"The first thing you think of is just, 'This can't be true,' right?" said Kai McGalla, a sophomore who spoke by phone while locked down at a campus testing centre.
Student Joshua Sirmans, 20, was in the main library when alarms went off. Law enforcement officers escorted him and other students from the library with their hands over their heads, 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, where investigators' yellow tape blocked off the nearby doors.
Florida State University is one of Florida'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 in that shooting, 31-year-old Myron May.
The university cancelled all classes and events for Thursday as well as all home athletic events through Sunday.