Florida State University Mass Shooting

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Two people were killed and six others were injured after an armed student stormed Florida State University's campus in Tallahassee on Thursday, authorities confirmed.

The gunman, believed to be a 20-year-old FSU student, was shot by police on campus, taken into custody, and transported to the hospital as well, police said.

Here's everything we know so far.

FSU campus in chaos: the shooting's timeline
According to FSU, police responded to the active shooter call from the area of the campus student union around 12:01 p.m.

"Police are on scene or on the way," the alert said. "Continue to seek shelter and await further instructions. Lock and stay away from all doors and windows and be prepared to take additional protective measures."

It was at this time that the gunman began to fire on the main campus, shooting at multiple individuals and killing two people, who were not students, police said.

Across campus, police escorted students and staff to the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, which was established as a student reunification point.

Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence E. Revell said FSU campus police was on scene and engaged with the gunman "almost immediately."

FSU's alert system continued, advising everyone on campus to continue sheltering in place as police investigated.

The FSU campus had been secured by authorities around 3:15 p.m., Tallahassee Police confirmed.

Revell said Tallahassee Police will be the lead agency to investigate the FSU shooting and the shooting between the officer and gunman.

2 victims dead, 6 others injured
In a Thursday press conference, officials said there were a total of nine victims: two people were killed, while six people and the gunman were hospitalized.

In their initial update, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said they were in "close coordination" with first responders and public safety officials.

"Out of respect for patient privacy and to ensure accurate information, we will provide updates as soon as they are available," TMH said.

In a later update, TMH told CBS News Miami that they had received six patients — one in critical condition and the others listed in serious condition. The hospital said all patients were in fair condition as of around 4:30 pm.

Revell confirmed that the gunman was also sent to the hospital for treatment of his injuries.

The suspect was a deputy's child
Not only was the suspected gunman a current student at FSU, but he is also the son of a Leon County Sheriff's deputy, officials confirmed.

According to Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil, the 20-year-old man is the son of one of his deputies, saying his mother has been with the force for 18 years and that he was involved in the sheriff's office youth programs. The shooter also used his mother's former service weapon -- now a personal handgun -- which was found at the scene.

"Not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons," McNeil said.

At this time, McNeil said his agency will investigate further into the circumstances of how the shooter obtained his deputy's gun and whether there will be any suspensions or terminations made.

Revell added that there is no reason at this time to believe he hadn't acted alone and that there are no current threats to the community.

A multi-agency response in Tallahassee
Multiple agencies have responded to the scene, including campus police and other Tallahassee area agencies, including the Leon County Sheriff's Office. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said state law enforcement was responding to the shooting.

Additionally, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI's Jacksonville and Tallahassee offices are on the scene to assist.

The FBI said in Thursday's press conference that the agency has established a digital tipline to help law enforcement with the investigation. If anyone has any information, they can submit their tips to fbi.gov/fsushooting. The FBI also said it is ensuring that all resources needed are brought to the community.

Revell said he and the other law enforcement officers who responded to the scene will try to remain open and transparent in collaboration with the State Attorney's Office to get to the bottom of the "very horrific incident."

Officials have identified the son of a sheriff’s deputy as a suspect in the Florida State University shooting that killed two people and wounded several others Thursday.

Phoenix Ikner, 20, accessed one of his mother's weapons — a handgun — that officials said was used in the shooting and matched one of the firearms at the scene, Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Officials said that Ikner’s mother had purchased her former service weapons and that it was her personal property at the time of the shooting.

A student who witnessed the gunman approach campus and begin opening fire said the shooter pulled up to campus in an orange Hummer and got out holding a rifle and shooting in her direction.

“I think he was shooting and he missed. So he goes back into his car and grabs a pistol, then he turns and shoots the lady in front of him. That’s when I just started running," McKenzie Heeter, a junior at FSU, told NBC News.

Heeter described the shooter as a “normal college dude.”

Classmate said suspect had white supremacist views
Reid Seybold, a senior at FSU who was around the corner from the shooting when it unfolded, said he knew Ikner from a political discussion group at Tallahassee State College, where he spent the first two years of his education before he transferred to FSU.

Seybold, the group's president, said Ikner was asked not to return to the group because of views that Seybold said aligned with white supremacy.

“He espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric and far-right rhetoric, as well,” Seybold said.

Since then, Seybold said, he has seen Ikner only a couple of times in passing.

The current president of the same club, Riley Pusins, said that at meetings, the suspect advocated for President Donald Trump’s agenda and often promoted white supremacist values, even though the club was nonpartisan and was about debate and political discourse.

Pusins said many people in the club had labeled the suspect, who attended regularly as recently as last semester, a fascist.

After the meetings, Pusins said, the suspect often made more “inappropriate” comments. He would “go up to the line” in the meeting and then cross the line in comments made after the fact, Pusins said.

Years before he was named a suspect in this week’s fatal shooting at Florida State University, Phoenix Ikner had sought a new beginning. Traumatized by a complex custody battle between his parents that had ended in charges against his mother when he was younger, the then-teenager asked a Leon County, Florida, circuit court for a legal name change.

Ikner appeared at his court hearing in 2020 via videoconference, dressed in his naval junior ROTC uniform. An honors student in high school at the time, he made a good impression.

“This court found him to be a mentally, emotionally, and physically mature young adult, who is very articulate, quite intelligent, very well spoken, and very polite,” wrote administrative magistrate James Banks in his approval of the legal switch from Ikner’s birth name, which had been Christian Gunnar Eriksen.

Ikner chose to adopt his father’s surname and selected a first name brimming with symbolism.

“He chose the name Phoenix because of its representation of rising from the ashes anew,” Banks wrote.

How Ikner went from a teenager with hopes for a fresh start to a 20-year-old accused of killing two people and injuring at least five others in Thursday’s shooting in Tallahassee is a mystery. In interviews with classmates and reviews of legal documents, a portrait of a young man who struggled with a fractured family life and clashed with classmates over his extreme political views has emerged.

But a possible motive for the deadly violence is not yet known.

Ikner had just transferred to Florida State University from Tallahassee State College and enrolled this semester as a political science major. He remains hospitalized with serious but non-life-threatening injuries after he was shot by law enforcement, police said.

As the investigation widened Friday into what led to the gunfire, students who knew the accused gunman described him as a troubled young man who openly talked about having a weapon.

“He would joke about mass violence,” said Lucas Luzietti, who shared a national government class with Ikner when he was at Tallahassee State College. “And he did talk about how he used guns and had access to them.”

Luzietti said he once argued with Ikner over the 2020 election and said that their classmates would exchange looks over Ikner’s comments. That included Ikner denying the results of the presidential election and sharing hateful comments about minorities, he added.

“He espoused the election denialism belief that Joe Biden was not the legitimate president, he said that Rosa Parks was in the wrong, he also talked about how Black people are ruining his neighborhood and Stonewell was bad for society,” Luzietti said. “He would also talk about how multiculturalism is dangerous.”

Reid Seybold, a senior at FSU who said he first met Ikner at Tallahassee State, recalled Ikner being asked not to return to a political discussion club at his former college because of “white supremacist rhetoric and far-right rhetoric.”

The club’s current president, Riley Pusins, said Ikner often promoted white supremacist values, even though the group was nonpartisan and was about debate and political discourse. After the meetings, Ikner would make even worse remarks, Pusins said.

NBC News has confirmed the identity of the victims who died in Thursday’s shooting: Robert Morales, 57, and Tiru Chabba, 45. FSU grad student Madison Askins was among the injured; the identities of the other wounded victims have not yet been released.

Authorities said Thursday they believe Ikner used a handgun that belonged to his stepmother, Jessica Ikner, a Leon County sheriff’s deputy and a school resource officer at a Tallahassee middle school.

Jessica Ikner and other family members could not be reached for comment. Court documents, however, detail difficulties in Ikner’s upbringing, including health issues and a battle for his custody that stretched overseas.

In 2015, Ikner’s biological mother, Anne-Mari Eriksen, took him out of the country, violating her agreement with Ikner’s father, Christopher, according to a probable cause affidavit from the Leon County Sheriff’s Office viewed by NBC News. Eriksen had shared custody of her son, who was 10 or 11 years old and went by his birth name at the time, but she was required to give advanced notice if she took Ikner out of the U.S. For spring break that year, the affidavit said, Eriksen had told Christopher Ikner they were traveling to South Florida. Instead, she allegedly took their son to Norway, where both she and him had dual citizenship.

Several weeks after spring break ended, Eriksen still had not brought the boy home to the United States and “had no intention of returning” him to Tallahassee, despite pleas from his father, the affidavit added.

When Eriksen did not bring Ikner back, Christopher Ikner contacted authorities to report his son kidnapped and to report that he was being denied medical care for developmental delays and special needs he had been diagnosed with, which included attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and a growth hormone disorder, the affidavit said.

“By keeping Christian in Norway, the defendant failed to have Christian in school for scheduled testing, canceled appointments with Christian’s doctors in the U.S., and failed to maintain his medication protocols by her own admission,” it said.

Later that year, Eriksen filed a lawsuit against Christopher and Jessica Ikner plus two other relatives in the Ikner family for allegedly slandering her and causing “psychological harm” to their son by “continuous and vicious litigation in family court.” The Ikners could not be reached for comment.

“Christian Gunnar Eriksen is the victim of psychological and emotional abuse, as well as parental alienation. Christopher Ikner enjoys taking credit for things that Anne-Mari Eriksen has done privately, professionally and parent wise,” the legal complaint read.

Eriksen, who could not be reached for comment, was ultimately charged with removing a minor from the state and failing to return a minor, records show. She pleaded no contest and served a brief jail sentence.

When Phoenix Ikner petitioned to legally change his name from Christian Gunnar Eriksen in 2019, which the court approved the following year, his mother objected to the name change, while his father supported it, papers show.

Banks, the administrative magistrate who approved the change, wrote: “He sees no reason to keep his former name as it is a constant reminder of the 2015 tragedy he suffered through and of his mother who he has not seen or spoken to since 2015.”

Authorities say that at about 11 a.m. Thursday, Ikner arrived at the FSU parking garage, where he stayed for close to an hour before walking toward the student union. He then allegedly stalked buildings and lawns, firing his handgun indiscriminately at people, police added.

Panicked students fled for their lives and called 911. Responding officers shot Ikner when he refused their commands, police said, with the rampage lasting less than five minutes.

Following Thursday’s shooting, Ikner has invoked his right to remain silent, police said.