The alleged school shooter who killed two people has been identified as the son of a local deputy.
Phoenix Ikner, 20, opened fire at Florida State University (FSU) on Thursday, killing two men and injuring six others, police said.
Students and their parents hid for cover in a bowling alley and a freight elevator inside the student union, AP reported.
Ikner has been identified as the son of Deputy Jessica Ikner of the Leon County Sheriff's Office.
Alleged school shooter Phoenix Ikner had access to his mother’s service gun and had recently shared disturbing social media posts
Image credits: ikner2004
WARNING: This article contains content that some readers may find distressing
He was shot and wounded by police at the University’s Tallahassee campus on Thursday afternoon local time. He remains in hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said six patients transferred to their care after the incident were “currently in fair condition.”
Sheriff Walt McNeil said Ikner had access to his mother’s former service gun, which she kept after the force upgraded its weapons.
Image credits: Kevin Dunlap/unsplash.com
Ikner’s mother has been with the sheriff’s office for over 18 years and has been a model employee, McNeil added.
A shotgun was also found at the scene.
“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.”
Ikner’s social media posts have now emerged.
WARNING: The video below contains images that some viewers may find distressing
In his biography on one page, he said: “Jeremiah 51:20 - ‘you are my war club, my weapons for battle, with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.’”
The Book of Jeremiah warned of an impending judgment day, and the passage refers to how God used the Babylonian army as a weapon to punish and break nations and kingdoms.
FSU student Reid Seybold, who knew Ikner, said that during the “harrowing” incident, he was “getting ready to die” as he texted family and friends to tell them he loved them.
Ikner was reportedly asked not to return to a political group due to his “white supremacist rhetoric”
Image credits: NBC News
Seybold was previously the president of a political talk group called Political Round Table and said Ikner joined the club but was asked not to return due to his extreme views.
“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,” he told NBC News.
Image credits: Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images
The university’s student newspaper, FSU News, previously reported Ikner was a protester at a campus demonstration against President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
They have now removed his quote to “avoid amplifying the voice of an individual responsible for violence.”
Trump and DeSantis both issued statements following the incident, which is the second shooting at FSU
Trump said he had been briefed on the situation before he met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday.
“I’m a big advocate of the Second Amendment. I have been from the beginning, I have protected it,” Trump said when asked about gun legislation.
“These things are terrible but the gun doesn’t do the shooting, the people do.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis thanked local law enforcement and said, “This killer must and will be brought to justice under the full force of the law.”
Chief Lawrence Revell of the Tallahassee Police Department said: “Our hearts are with the victims, families, students, and larger Florida State University community in the wake of this tragedy.
“What occurred today was a heinous and despicable act of violence. Sadly, as a result of this shooting, two adult males were killed, and five other victims were injured by gunfire.”
Revell added that an eighth person was injured while attempting to run away from the shooting.
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“This remains an open and active investigation, and TPD is committed to bringing justice to the victims in this case,” he said.
This is not the first shooting at FSU.
In 2014, three people were shot and injured in the university library by a graduate before police fatally shot him.
Officials have not yet released a motive for Thursday’s fatal shooting.