Two people died and six others were wounded after a 20-year-old man opened fire at Florida State University with his mother's former service weapon. The shooter identified as Phoenix Ikner by Associated Press was the son of a sheriff's deputy but the motive behind his act is not known to media yet.
Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell told AP that the police officers reached the site soon, shot and wounded the shooter after he refused to comply with commands.
The shooting began around lunchtime just outside the student union, which sent the students and parents hiding for cover in a bowling alley and a freight elevator inside the building.
A small memorial of candles and bouquets of flowers had been set up outside the student union at Florida State University, while investigators' yellow tape blocked off the nearby doors.
Who Was The Shooter?
The shooter, identified by police as Phoenix Ikner, is believed to be a Florida State student, investigators said.
According to Florida State University Police Chief Jason Trumbower, the two people who died were not students but there hasn't been any information about their identity yet.
The shooter obtained access to a weapon that belongs to his mother, who has been with the sheriff's office for over 18 years and has been a model employee, Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil told AP.
Police said they believed Ikner shot the victims using his mother's former service handgun, which she had kept for personal use after the force upgraded to new weapons.
The alleged shooter was a long-standing member of the sheriff's office's youth advisory council, the sheriff added.
"He has been steeped in the Leon County Sheriff's Office family, engaged in a number of training programs that we have," McNeil told AP.
"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. I really did. I really, really did," he said.
Trumbower said investigators have no evidence that anyone was shot with the shotgun.
Situation At Florida School
Ryan Cedergren, a 21-year-old communications student, told AP that 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.
Chris Pento said he and his twins were getting lunch at the student union during a campus tour when they heard gunshots. "It was surreal. And people just started running," he told WCTV in Tallahassee.
They crammed 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."
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including a forensics van, were parked outside the student union hours after the shooting. 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.
Tallahassee Memorial Hospital confirmed it was treating six people wounded in the shooting, one in critical condition.
Trump's Reaction
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.
Previous Shootings In Florida
Florida State is one of Florida's 12 public universities, with its main campus in Tallahassee. About 44,000 students are enrolled in the university, per 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.
The university canceled classes for the rest of the week and canceled home athletic events through Sunday.
(With AP inputs)
