***Update:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The 20-year-old son of a sheriff’s deputy opened fire Thursday at Florida State University with his mother’s former service weapon, killing two people and wounding at least six others, investigators said.
Officers quickly arrived and shot and wounded the shooter after he refused to comply with commands, said Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell.
Authorities have not yet revealed a motive for the shooting, which began around lunchtime just outside the student union, sending frightened students and parents hiding for cover in a bowling alley and a freight elevator inside the building.
The shooter, identified by police as Phoenix Ikner, is believed to be a Florida State student, investigators said. The two people who died were not students, said Florida State University Police Chief Jason Trumbower, adding that he would not release additional information about the victims.
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, 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 to new weapons.
The alleged shooter was a long-standing member of the sheriff’s office’s youth advisory council, the sheriff said.
“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.”
Witness says the suspect’s shotgun jammed
Aidan Stickney, a 21-year-old studying business management, says he was running late to class when he saw a man get out of a car with a shotgun and aim at another man in a white polo shirt.
Stickney says the gun jammed and the shooter rushed back to the 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 says.
University Police Chief Trumbower says investigators have no evidence that anyone was shot with the shotgun.
All six patients wounded during shooting are in fair condition, hospital says
All six patients wounded during the shooting are in fair condition, according to an update from Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. The hospital said earlier Thursday that one of those wounded was in critical condition.
The alleged shooter is among the wounded, having been shot by arriving officers after refusing to comply with commands, officials said.
Two people who were not FSU students died in the shooting. FSU Police Chief Jason Trumbower says he will not be releasing additional information about the victims.
FBI calls for photos, video and other information for its investigation
The FBI is urging anyone at or near the shooting scenes to send photos, video recordings or other information to an FBI website collecting tips for what was called a very active investigation.
City police Chief Revell says of responding officers’ confrontation with the gunman that they “challenged him and they ended up shooting him. He did not comply with commands and was shot. I do not believe he fired at all.”
“Needless to say we have multiple crime scenes” with hundreds or even more witnesses, Revell says.
Students moved classroom desks to barricade door before police escorted them out
Andres Perez, a 20-year-old junior, was in a classroom near the Student Union when the alarm sounded for a lockdown. He said his classmates began moving desks in front of the door. Police officers came to escort them out about 15 minutes later.
“I always hang out in the Student Union,” Perez said. “So the second I found out that the threat was there, my heart sank and I was scared.”
Perez says he’s not sure what he’ll do when classes eventually resume.
“I’m thinking that I have finals around the corner. School’s about to wrap up in just two weeks,” Perez said. “And there’s so much to take into account. There are so many emotions there.”
Officers wounded shooter after he refused to comply with commands, chief says
Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell says officers shot and wounded the shooter after he refused to comply with commands.
Officials say the shooter, identified by police as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, is believed to be a Florida State student.
Authorities have not yet revealed a motive for the shooting.
Gunman used deputy mom’s former service weapon, sheriff says
Sheriff McNeil says the alleged shooter, Phoenix Ikner, had access to a former service weapon that had been used by his mother, a deputy with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office for 18 years.
“She has a tremendous job that she’s done, her service to this community has been exceptional,” McNeil said during a news conference. “Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons, and that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene.
“And we will continue that investigation into how that weapon was used and what other weapons perhaps he may have had access to.”
McNeil says that as a member of the sheriff’s office Youth Advisory Council, Ikner had been “engaged in a number of training programs that we have.”
“So it’s not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons,” McNeil says.
Shooter fired at individuals around student union building, official says
University police chief Jason Trumbower says the shooter opened fire at about 11:50 a.m., shooting individuals around the student union building.
Tallahassee Memorial Hospital has confirmed it is treating six patients, one of them in critical condition.
Trumbower says authorities would not be releasing information about the victims, including whether they were students. But he did confirm the two people who were killed were not students at the university.
Sheriff says alleged shooter was a member of his office’s youth advisory council
Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil revealed the alleged shooter’s identity and his relation to Deputy Jessica Ikner, who has been with the sheriff’s office for over 18 years.
McNeil says the alleged shooter was a longstanding member of the sheriff’s office’s youth advisory council and engaged in a number of training programs with the office.
“This is obviously a heinous crime,” 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.”
Police identify alleged FSU shooter and confirm 2 are dead and 6 were injured
Police officials have confirmed that two people are dead and six were injured in the shooting, including the 20-year-old shooter, who was the son of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy.
Police say they believe Phoenix Ikner, who shot the victims using his parents’ former service handgun, was a current student at FSU.
Trump says shooting is a “shame,” but he wont' be advocating for any new gun legislation
Asked about shooting, Trump said “it’s a shame,” adding that he knew the school and the area “very well.”
But 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, 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.
The shooter was the son of a sheriff's deputy
The shooter who wounded five students and killed two people at Florida State University Thursday is the 20-year-old son of a sheriff’s deputy, who obtained access to their parent’s weapon, the FSU police chief said.
The shooter was “engaged in a number of training programs” that the agency offered, he added.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The 20-year-old son of a sheriff’s deputy opened fire Thursday at Florida State University with his mother’s former service weapon, killing two people and wounding at least six others, investigators said.
Officers quickly arrived and shot and wounded the shooter after he refused to comply with commands, said Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell.
Authorities have not yet revealed a motive for the shooting, which began around lunch time just outside the student union, sending students and frightened parents hiding for cover in a bowling alley and a freight elevator inside the building.
The shooter, identified by police as Phoenix Ikner, is believed to be a Florida State student, investigators said.
He had obtained access to a weapon that belongs to his mother, who has been with the sheriff’s office for over 18 years, said Walt McNeil, Sheriff of Leon County. Police said they believed Ikner shot the victims using his mother's former service handgun.
The two people who died were not students at the university, said Florida State University Police Chief Jason Trumbower, adding that he would not release additional information about the victims.
Tallahassee Memorial Hospital confirmed it was treating six patients wounded from in the shooting, one in critical condition.
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 Thursday.
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.
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.
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.
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 center.
Junior 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.
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, 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 all classes and events for Thursday. It also canceled home athletic events through Sunday.