TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — (AP) — A gunman opened fire Thursday at Florida State University, killing two people and wounding at least six others, police said. The 20-year-old gunman is the son of a sheriff's deputy whose former service weapon was used in the shooting, authorities said.
The two people who died were not students at the university, but the shooter is believed to be a student, said Florida State University Police Chief Jason Trumbower.
Five people were being treated at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Trumbower said, and the shooter is also receiving medical attention.
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As dusk fell Thursday, students walked the grounds of Florida State University, taking in the sight of their campus now rendered a crime scene ringed with investigators’ yellow tape. Several students sat silently before a small memorial of candles and flowers near the student union.
Tables that had been set up to plug local apartment complexes and cannabis dispensaries sat abandoned along a tree-lined walkway outside the brick building, close to the scene of the midday shooting.
Also left behind in the apparent scramble for safety: a pair of sandals, a half-full Starbucks matcha latte, notes from a chemistry class scattered across the ground.
A Tallahassee Police Department patrol car was stationed Thursday evening near the street where the suspected Florida State University shooter’s family lives, blocking reporters from approaching the home in a well-kept suburban neighborhood on the city’s east side.
FSU president Richard McCullough says he has visited some of the wounded students in the hospital.
McCullough also called the campus police officers “absolute heroes” and says their response to the shooting “prevented this from being a bigger tragedy.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a message posted on social media that “we are all Seminoles today. We stand by to help in any way that we can.”
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 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.
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.
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.”
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.
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."
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.
University police chief Jason Trumbower says the shooter opened fire at about 11:50 a.m., shooting individuals around the student union building.
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.
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 long-standing 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 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 shot the victims using his parents’ former service handgun and was a current student at FSU.
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.
The shooter 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.
FSU Police Chief Jason Trumbower confirmed two deaths from a Florida State University shooting at about noon Thursday.
The two people killed were not students at the university, but the shooter is believed to be a student.
Five people are being treated at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, and the shooter is also receiving medical attention, he said.
Florida State University is canceling classes through Friday, which is two weeks before the university’s scheduled commencement ceremony for graduates on May 2 to 3.
The university’s official finals week per its academic calendar is scheduled to start April 28.
FSU’s alert system announced shortly after 3 p.m. that law enforcement had “neutralized the threat."
Officials are asking students and faculty to avoid the Student Union and several other areas that are still considered an active crime scene. People are otherwise free to move about the campus.
Jake Nair, a senior at Florida State University, was studying in the library when a police officer dashed out of the building, yelling for everyone to stay in place.
“He ran outside with his gun out,” Nair said. “Not all the students heard him, and some of them ran out the back of the library.”
Nair said an alarm in the library then went off and a recorded message warned students to shelter in place because of an active shooter on campus.
Then about five officers came into the library and escorted the students out with their hands up.
“I think they just wanted to make sure none of us had a weapon on us,” Nair said. “To be honest, it was a bit of a surreal moment. It’s the kind of thing you only see on the news.”
For some Florida State University faculty and staffers who have been on campus for the past dozen years, Thursday’s events brought back memories of another shooting at the school’s main library more than a decade ago.
Three people in 2014 were shot just outside and inside the entrance of Strozier Library in the middle of FSU’s campus. Officers who arrived within two minutes of the first call shot and killed the gunman, 31-year-old Myron May.
Three bullets struck 21-year-old student Farhan “Ronny” Ahmed, including a shot that severely damaged his spine and left him paralyzed from the waist down. The other two victims were library employee Nathan Scott who was shot in the leg and later released from the hospital and a student who was grazed by a bullet.
May, a 2005 FSU graduate and an attorney, reloaded at least once and tried to enter the library, but was blocked by lobby security barriers. Police responded and fired off a barrage of bullets that killed him.
Videos and a journal obtained by police indicate May thought he was being watched and targeted by the government.
Florida A&M University, a university minutes away from Florida State University in Tallahassee, announced Thursday afternoon that classes and student activities are canceled for the rest of the day, in response to the shooting.
Employees have the option to work remotely for the rest of the day.
Chris Pento told Tallahassee TV station WCTV that he was on campus Thursday for a tour with his twins and that they were inside the student union getting lunch when they heard gunshots.
“It was surreal. And people just started running,” he told the TV station.
Pento said he and several others crammed into a service elevator after first 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.”
He said the officers asked if they’d seen anything and then pointed them to safety.
Kai McGalla, an FSU sophomore studying finance and Spanish, was taking a test on Excel spreadsheets at a testing center on campus when he started to hear sirens headed to the student union about a 20-minute walk away. The test proctor told them they were being locked down at the center because of the shooting.
“I’m in shock, you know, it’s so hard to believe,” McGalla said by phone while still locked down at the testing center. “The first thing you think of is just, ‘This can’t be true,’ right?”
The canceled events include three baseball and three softball games.
It’s not immediately clear if FSU teams scheduled for road events will also see their games canceled or postponed.
Ryan Cedergren, a 21-year-old communications student, said he and about 30 others hid in the bowling alley in the lower level of the student union after seeing students running from a nearby bar.
“In that moment, it was survival,” Cedergren said.
After about 15 minutes of hiding, university police escorted the students out of the union, and Cedergren said he saw a person receiving emergency treatment on the lawn.
The president opened his Oval Office meeting with the Italian prime minister with comments on the shooting at Florida State University.
Trump said he had been “fully briefed.”
“It’s a horrible thing. It’s horrible that things like this take place,” he said.
Florida State University is one of Florida’s 12 public universities, with its main campus located in Tallahassee, where the shooting occurred, just minutes from the state Capitol building. About 44,300 students are enrolled in the university, per the school’s 2024 fact sheet.
One person is in critical condition, a spokesperson for Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said. The other patients are in serious condition, the spokesperson said.
A suspect has been taken into police custody and multiple victims were reported in a shooting Thursday at Florida State University, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
The extent of the victims’ injuries was not immediately known and there were no additional details about the person who was in custody.
The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity.
By Mike Balsamo
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a social media post that the Justice Department is in touch with FBI agents who are on the scene.
“Our priority is the safety of everyone involved,” Bondi wrote on X. “We will keep updating as we learn more. Praying for all.”
In a social media post, FBI Director Kash Patel said that he and his team had been briefed on the shooting and that agents from the bureau’s Jacksonville field office were at the school. “We will provide full support to local law enforcement as needed,” Patel said. “Please keep the FSU community in your prayers.”
“Our prayers are with our FSU family and state law enforcement is actively responding,” Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X.
Ambulances, fire trucks and patrol vehicles from multiple law enforcement agencies raced toward the campus after the university issued an active shooter alert midday Thursday, saying police were responding near the student union.
Hundreds of students streamed away from the direction of the student union. Students were glued to their phones, some visibly emotional, while others hugged each other. Dozens gathered near the music school, waiting for news.
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