Students gather on a stretch of sidewalk near the center of the Florida State campus in sight of the Student Union building in Tallahassee on Friday, April 18, 2025. | Gary McCullough, AP
Published on April 18, 2025 at 12:14 pm
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Students dropped off balloons, candles and teddy bears at a memorial Friday morning near Florida State University’s student union where a 20-year-old opened fire, killing two men and wounding six others.
Some returned to retrieve their belongings less than a day after they had barricaded classroom doors and fled across campus, abandoning chemistry notes and even shoes. A pair of vigils were planned for the afternoon.
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“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.
The shooter, identified by police as Phoenix Ikner, is believed to be a Florida State student and the son of a sheriff’s deputy who began firing with his mother’s former service weapon, investigators said. Authorities have not yet revealed a motive for the shooting, which began around lunchtime Thursday just outside the student union.
Officers quickly arrived and shot and wounded the gunman after he refused to comply with commands, said Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell.
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The two men who were killed were not students, said Florida State University Police Chief Jason Trumbower, who did not release any other details about the victims.
The shooter obtained a weapon that belongs to his mother, who has been with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office for over 18 years and has been a model employee, said Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil. 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 its weapons.
Five people who were wounded were struck by gunfire, while a sixth was hurt while trying to run away, Revell said. Two were expected to be discharged from Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare on Friday, three have been upgraded to good condition and one remained in fair, a hospital spokesperson for Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said Friday morning.
FSU ties in Jax
In Jacksonville, Mayor Donna Deegan, an FSU graduate, said she was “heartbroken” by the shooting.
“As an alum who also had a child at Florida State, my heart goes out to the families and students terrorized by this senseless act of violence,” Deegan wrote on X.
The University of North Florida offered to help in any way it could and offered counseling to UNF students, faculty and staff.
“Many of us have family, friends and colleagues who attend or work at FSU. I urge you to offer your support and check on them during this difficult time,” President Moez Limayem said in a statement. “I reached out to FSU President McCullough to assure him we are here to help the FSU community in any way we can.”
The shooter was a long-standing member of the Leon County Sheriff’s youth advisory council, which was created to build communication between young people and local law enforcement while also teaching the teens leadership and team-building skills.
“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.”
As of Thursday night, Ikner was in the hospital with “serious but non-life-threatening injuries,” according to Revell. The hospital declined to provide an update on the shooter’s condition, saying it cannot comment on the identity of patients.
Information from Jacksonville Today was used in this report.
