Florida State University shooting suspect Phoenix Ikner had a history of promoting white supremacist views and expressing anti-Black hate speech, which made those who knew him concerned and uncomfortable long before the attack, according to police and former and current classmates.
What happened at FSU?
Ikner, 20, was confirmed as the gunman in Thursday’s attack at FSU that left two people dead and six others injured. Leon County Sheriff Walter A. McNeil said Ikner was also a student at the university and the stepson of veteran Leon County sheriff deputy Jessica Ikner. McNeil added that the gun Ikner used in the shooting belonged to his stepmother, according to USA Today and Local 10 News.
FSU Police Chief Jason Trumbower said the shooting occurred around 11:50 a.m. Thursday near the university’s student union, where Ikner reportedly opened fire, wounding several people as they fled for safety. Campus police responded quickly to the incident, and according to reports, Ikner failed to comply with commands. Officers then shot and wounded him before taking him into custody, per USA Today.
Ikner remains hospitalized at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare with serious but non-threatening injuries, Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said, according to NBC News. The five other people wounded in the attack are also hospitalized at the medical center.
Ikner expressed far-right and racist ideologies
Ikner was known for making alarming comments that left people around him uncomfortable, including one classmate, Lucas Luzietti, a political student who shared a federal politics class with the 20-year-old in 2023.
“I got into arguments with him in class over how gross the things he said were,” Luzietti told USA Today.
He said Ikner often shared conspiracy theories, including one about former President Joe Biden falsely being elected to office, and racist views on Black people, stating that civil rights activist “Rosa Parks was in the wrong” and that Black people were ruining his neighborhood.
“I remember thinking this man should not have access to firearms,” Luzietti explained, per USA Today. But, “what are you supposed to do? His mother was a cop and Florida doesn’t have very strong red flag laws.”
According to Everytown, 21 states have red flag laws, which allow individuals to petition a court to remove a person’s access to firearms if they pose a risk to themselves or others.
“It’s so sad and so shocking,” Luzietti said of the shooting. “Then to see that it was him — I’m sadly not surprised.”
Ikner was removed from a campus political club over hateful remarks
Ikner attended Tallahassee State College before transferring to FSU, along with another student, Reid Seybold. He shared with NBC News his experience with Ikner and how they met at their old school.
Seybold said the pair belonged to a “political roundtable” club and asked Ikner to leave over the hateful things he said during those meetings.
“Basically our only rule was no Nazis — colloquially speaking — and he espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric, and far-right rhetoric as well, to the point where we had to exercise that rule,” Seybold said.
Ikner registered to vote as a Republican in 2022, per Local 10 News.
‘This event is tragic’
Ikner had close ties to the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, as his stepmother was a longtime department member. While attending Lincoln High School, he was one of eight students selected to join LCSO’s youth advisory council, where he served as a longstanding member, McNeil said.
“He has been steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family, engaged in a number of training programs, so it’s not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons,” McNeil said in a statement obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat. “This event is tragic in more ways than you people in the audience could ever [fathom] from a law enforcement perspective.”
He also confirmed that the firearm Ikner used in the shooting originally belonged to his stepmother, before the department upgraded to a new one.
“This was a handgun that that deputy used prior to them transitioning to a new handgun, and so it was her personal handgun,” he said.
