Officials have identified the son of a sherriff’s deputy as a suspect in the deadly Florida State University shooting that killed two 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, Walt McNeil, the Leon County Sheriff said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
Officials said Ikner’s mother had purchased her former service weapons and it was her personal property at the time of the shooting.
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Police said the gunman also had a shotgun but have not yet confirmed if it was used.
A motive in the campus shooting has not been identified.
Ikner is believed to be a student at FSU.
It was not a surprise that Ikner had access to weapon, McNeil said, as he was a member of the sheriff’s office’s citizen advisory or Youth Advisory Council.
The gunman opened fire near the student union around 11:50 a.m., said Jason Trumbower, FSU Chief of Police. He shot multiple people before FSU police were able to engage, neutralize and apprehend him.
The shooter has been hospitalized with unspecified injuries, police said Thursday. His condition was not provided.
“This event is tragic in more ways than you people in the audience could ever fathom from a law enforcement perspective,” McNeil said. “But I will tell you this, 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 this state and across this nation.”
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.”
Doha Madani and Marlene Lenthang contributed.
