Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
On Thursday, Apr. 17, Florida State University student Phoenix Ikner opened fire on the school’s campus around noon. He killed two people, 45-year-old Tiru Chabba who worked as a campus vendor employee and 57-year-old Robert Morales who worked as a dining services employee. There were only five gunshot wound victims who were taken to the hospital to be treated but have since been released. FSU police apprehended Ikner after shooting him in the jaw.
The suspect had previously been the subject of a custody dispute between his father, Christopher Ikner, and his mother, Anne-Mari Erikson. Part of the dispute involved Erikson telling Ikner she would be taking their son to South Florida for spring break, only to take him to Norway and have to complete 200 days probation for a charge of failure to return a child. According to The New York Times, the court ordered Erikson not to contact her son who later petitioned to change his name from Christian Gunnar Erikson to Phoenix Ikner. In an interview, Erikson said, “I feel bad for the people at FSU. My heart goes out to them. My heart is also with my son.”An affidavit also mentioned the suspect was on medication for ADHD and growth hormone disorder.
According to CBS News, the suspect’s step-mother is Leon County Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Ikner. The suspect’s gun also belonged to his step-mother and was her former service weapon that she owned as a personal gun.
Several FSU students had previous academic history with the suspect, including one student who said he had been part of a political club at a previous college but was asked to leave the group after engaging in White Supremacist rhetoric that made other members uncomfortable.
Some of the students who took shelter during the shooting were also victims in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Mass Shooting in 2018. According to The New York Times, student Joshua Gallagher posted on X that he thought he would never have to experience that kind of violence ever again, “Then I’m in the FSU Law Library, active shooter on campus. No matter your politics, we need to meet — and something has to change.”
Another student named Ilana Badiner, who attended school near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, also posted online saying, “It’s terrible that this keeps happening. This is crazy that it’s happened twice to me. Like, what are the odds?”
As of now, the suspect is in the hospital recovering from injuries sustained a gunshot wound while refusing to follow orders given by the police during his arrest. Once released from the hospital, he will be sent to a detention facility.
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