Florida State University shooting: What we know about victims, classes, suspect Tuesday
Memorials of flowers, balloons, stuffed animals and heartfelt messages lined the sidewalks and steps of the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee Monday as classes resumed four days after a gunman went on a shooting rampage that killed two and left six injured in less than five minutes.
FSU President Richard McCullough was on hand to greet and comfort students returning to campus.
"Yeah, I mean, it's emotional," he said. "Students are doing fine. Everybody I've talked to, they seem to be doing fine. They don't seem to be scared, which is good. But, you know, still, still reeling and emotional from what happened.
"So I think, you know, having classes today was the right thing to do. A lot of the seniors told me that they would have felt very bad if we would have not had the option of them coming back, because it would have been the shooting and then graduation."
The upcoming week of classes is the last before finals. In a statement Saturday night after backlash erupted over plans to open the campus Monday, McCullough said that classes would resume as scheduled, remote options would be available for many courses and attendance policies would be waived for students who weren't ready to come back.
Many professors have give students the option to freeze their grades and made finals optional. They also made it so that coursework and tests after the shooting can only help students' grades.
Five of the victims from the mass shooting Thursday at Florida State University in Tallahassee that left two dead and six injured have been released, officials at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said Tuesday. The sixth was listed in good condition.
None of the victims have been identified, but one, Madison Askins, 23, gave an interview over the weekend and described how she pretended to be dead to avoid getting shot again.
On Thursday, April 17, Tallahassee police say FSU student Phoenix Ikner, the stepson of a Leon County Sheriff's deputy, used his mother's firearm to gun down students and adults before being shot and subdued by law enforcement.
Here's what we know about the shooting as of Tuesday, April 22.
Piper Greisl, an FSU undergraduate, described the two hours of waiting in a room with a heap of chairs barricading the door and the American flag used to cover the door's window in an essay for The Tallahassee Democrat.
About 25 people were huddled up against the walls of the room, she said, while she, the professor, and four boys stood waiting, holding metal water bottles and trying to decipher the noises from outside and the floor above.
"There was a safe word that campus police would say when evacuating rooms, but it was sent to the entire university through FSU Alert texts," Greisl said. "We were scared, we were anxious, and we wanted to survive. What would happen if a shooter knew the safe word?"
On Monday, the Tallahassee Police Department said in a Facebook post that an FSU student dropped off cookies and a heartfelt note over the weekend, thanking them "for your bravery and courage."
"It's unimaginable what students, faculty, and staff experienced that day," the post said. "To the FSU community: Our hearts and prayers remain with you. We're HERE for you. We stand with you. Always."
Phoenix Ikner, the stepson of a Leon County sheriff's deputy, is the suspected shooter in an attack at Florida State University on Thursday, April 17, that killed two and injured six.
Police say Ikner waited for an hour in an FSU parking garage and then opened fire at the FSU Student Union at 11:50 a.m. The university sent out an alert to students and faculty at 12:01 p.m. as law enforcement from multiple agencies quickly descended on the campus.
Ikner was eventually shot by law enforcement and taken to the hospital. He is believed to have acted alone, according to Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell. Students were released from a shelter-in-place request after law enforcement cleared the campus.
The shooting claimed the lives of Robert Morales, an FSU employee and high school football coach, and Tiru Chabba, 45, a married father of two from South Carolina, who was at FSU on a work-related visit.
One of the victims, Madison Askins, 23, told CBS Evening News in an interview from her hospital bed that she "played dead" to avoid being shot again by Ikner.
"The minute I got shot, I remember my parents telling me I just need to play dead, I didn't want him to shoot me again, God forbid it," Askins told a CBS reporter in an interview from her hospital bed at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.
'I just need to play dead': Florida State University student on surviving campus shooting
A vigil held on campus Friday afternoon drew thousands to honor the victims. On Easter Sunday, students packed the pews for Easter Mass.
Tallahassee police provided a timeline of the April 17 shooting at Florida State University.
11 a.m.: Phoenix Ikner arrives at an FSU parking garage.
11: 51 a.m.: Phoenix Ikner leaves the parking lot.
11:56 or 11:57 a.m.: Phoenix Ikner fires the first shot, then walks in and out of buildings and green spaces, firing a handgun.
11:58 a.m.: 911 calls report a male actively shooting on FSU campus. Nearby police officers respond.
By 12 p.m.: Phoenix Ikner is shot by responding officers and taken into custody.
Robert Morales, the university's dining coordinator, was one of the two people shot and killed during the mass shooting that shook the university and community.
Aside from his dining service work, Robert was a long-time special teams coach for Leon High School's football program and a partner in local favorite Gordos Cuban Cuisine.
The second victim in the April 17 mass shooting at FSU has been identified as Tiru Chabba, 45, of Greenville, South Carolina.
Chabba was identified via email by The Strom Law Firm, retained by the family to "ensure that all those who bear responsibility for this senseless act of violence are held to account."
Chabba was on the FSU campus Thursday as an employee of a campus vendor when he was shot and killed by Phoenix Ikner.
He is survived by his wife and two children.
Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil said the shooter was 20-year-old FSU student Ikner, the stepson of Leon County Deputy Jessica Ikner.
Born Christian Gunnar Eriksen, Ikner changed his name when he was 15 following a troubled childhood marked by decades-long custody battles between his parents. Ikner's biological mother spent about five months in jail after taking him against his will to Norway. Phoenix Ikner said that with his new name, he had hopes of rising from the 'ashes' of his childhood.
Ikner attended Lincoln High School and was a long-standing member of the 2021-22 Leon County Sheriff's Office Youth Advisory Council as a high school junior. Sheriff Walt McNeil said Phoenix was 'steeped in the Leon County Sheriff's Office family.'
Jessica Ikner, a middle school deputy, practiced shooting with her stepson, though "not in an official capacity," according to the Leon County Sheriff's Office. Deputy Ikner is currently on personal leave and is being reassigned, an LCSO spokesperson said.
"Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons, and that was one of the weapons found at the scene. We are continuing our investigation as to how that weapon was used and what other weapons perhaps he may have had access to," McNeil said during a press conference.
As of Tuesday morning, April 22, Ikner is still hospitalized after being shot by law enforcement.
Ikner faces a long list of charges, including first-degree murder, once he is released and transferred to the county jail.
Ikner's motive is still unknown.
"The suspect invoked his rights not to speak to us," Revell said at Thursday's press conference.
According to USA TODAY, students who knew Ikner were horrified but "weren't shocked given things he had said publicly."
In the aftermath of the shooting on Thursday, people who knew Ikner said he had a history of espousing radical conspiracy theories and hateful ideas. The president of a student politics club said Ikner 'espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric' that they booted him from the group.
By the time Ikner had enrolled in Tallahassee State College last year in 2024, other students said he was expressing extremist conspiracy theories and hateful ideas and was once kicked out of a "political round table" club for what one student claimed was frequent white supremacist and far-right rhetoric.
The suspected FSU gunman held a fascination with Hitler, Nazis and other hate groups, according to screenshots of his online activity captured by the Anti-Defamation League.
Ikner used a drawing of Hitler as a profile photo for an online gaming account. For the name of another account, the 20-year-old used 'Schutzstaffel,' the name of the ruthless 'SS' paramilitary group that started out as Hitler's personal bodyguard, grew into death squads and ran the concentration camps where millions of Jews were murdered.
More: New records show suspected FSU shooter had troubling fascination with hate groups
The Miami Herald reported that Ikner was cracking jokes about getting a good night's rest after taking a hit to the head in an online chat for students in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at FSU and Tallahassee State College.
After another student suggested he get hit again to cancel it out, Ikner replied, "Twice the head trauma, twice the power. I'm evolving."
The FSU shooting occurred nearly 26 years to the day of one of the deadliest, most infamous school shootings: the attack and attempted bombing at Columbine High School in Colorado.
On April 20, 1999, two 12th-grade students murdered twelve students and one teacher, the deadliest mass shooting at a K-12 school in history to that point.
The Columbine High School massacre has been the inspiration for dozens of copycat shooters, several of whom specifically planned for the anniversary.
Florida State University is located in the state's capital, Tallahassee. It is found in the middle of the Panhandle between Jacksonville and Pensacola.
The main campus of Florida State University is officially located at 600 W College Ave, Tallahassee, FL 32306.
According to LCSO, Ikner acted alone during the shooting, despite online rumors of multiple shooters.
A video has gone viral across social media showing someone walking past a wounded, bleeding woman lying face down on the grass. Rather than stopping to help or even running away from an active shooter, as what sounds like two shots are fired in the background, the person walks by while sipping from a Starbucks cup.
While officials believe the video is authentic, the Tallahassee Democrat is not running the video due to its graphic content and because it has not been verified as real or related to the FSU shooting.
See reactions: Viral video after FSU shooting seems to show person sipping coffee while passing wounded victim
The FBI has set up a tip line for anyone with information about the shooting that happened at FSU.
Anyone with video or audio media related to the incident can upload it here.
A GoFundMe has been set up to assist in Askins' recovery. Donate here: www.gofundme.com/f/maddie-strong-hope-healing-and-heart-after-fsu-shooting.
(This story was updated with new information.)
Contributing: William Hatfield, Arianna Otero, Jim Rosica, Jeff Burlew, Ana Goñi-Lessan, Alaijah Brown, Elena Barrera, Brittany Misencik, Gregg Pachkowski, Mollye Barrows of USA TODAY Network – Florida and Michael Loria of USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU shooting: What we know about victims, suspect, classes resuming
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