Shooter opens fire on FSU student union, leaving at least 2 dead, multiple injured
Two people are dead and five more wounded after a gunman opened fire on Florida State University’s Tallahassee campus – and the suspect is the son of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy.
The dead are not FSU students, chief of campus police Jason Trumbower said Thursday during a news conference hours after the shooting.
Those injured all suffered gunshot wounds and are being treated at a nearby hospital, Trumbower added.
The suspected gunman — 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner — is also hospitalized in police custody. “He did not comply with commands and was shot,” Tallahassee police Chief Lawrence E. Revell said.
Ikner, an FSU student, is suspected of using his own mother’s handgun in the massacre.
The weapon was his mother’s former service weapon, which she bought from the department after switching to a new handgun, police said, adding that the practice was standard.
Ikner also had at least one shotgun with him, police confirmed, though it is unclear whether he used it in the suspected attack. Some witnesses described the shooter firing a long gun before pulling out a pistol.
The suspect was also a member of the sheriff’s department Youth Advisory Council, a youth outreach group that advises the agency on how to address problems and concerns of local kids and teens.
“This event is tragic in more ways than you people in the audience could ever phantom (sic) from a law enforcement perspective,” Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil told reporters.
Here is the latest on the Florida State University shooting
- Shooter opens fire on FSU student union, leaving at least 2 dead, multiple injured
- Student who survived both FSU and Parkland shootings describes rushing peers to safety
- Victim killed in FSU shooting identified as dad of two, Aramark employee
- Alleged FSU gunman’s biological mom breaks silence about deadly shooting
The chaos broke out around noon on a sunny day in Tallahassee near the campus’ bustling student union building.
Terrifying footage on social media appeared to show a gunman armed with a pistol marching up and down a lawn and firing on random passersby fleeing for cover – while a wounded person lay slumped on the grass nearby.
Footage from later appeared to show a bloodied and shackled individual being loaded into an ambulance.
Other clips captured crowds of students fleeing through traffic as sirens blasted in the background.
Scores of ambulances, fire trucks and patrol vehicles from multiple law enforcement agencies, including SWAT teams, were seen swarming the campus.
First responders scrambled to help the wounded, with student Daniella Streety describing seeing somebody carried away in a desk chair as an improvised wheelchair.
“I did see them carry out one student in what looked like on a stretcher and kept them in the road until an ambulance was able to pick them up,” Streety told NBC News.
“There was a student injured there as well and they had to transport them in a desk chair to the road to then be transported via ambulance.”
The school’s initial alert cautioned students to seek shelter and keep away from doors and windows.
“Police are on scene or on the way. Continue to seek shelter and await further instructions,” the alert said.
“Lock and stay away from all doors and windows and be prepared to take additional protective measures.”
Joshua Sirmans, 20, said he was in the university’s main library when he said alarms began going off warning of an active shooter.
Sirmans said law enforcement officers escorted him and other students out of the library with their hands over their heads.
“I’m concerned about my friends,” she said. “I have friends in class right who are getting evacuated by police with their hands up.”
The FBI was among the many agencies responding to the scene, which police said remained an active Thursday evening.
After the campus was secured, the school announced that all classes and school events were canceled through Friday, and all sporting events were canceled through Sunday.
President Trump said he’d been briefed on the shooting, telling reporters in the Oval Office: “It’s a shame, a horrible thing, it’s horrible that things like this take place.”
Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote in a post on X: “Our prayers are with our FSU family and state law enforcement is actively responding.”
With Post wires
