TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The 20-year-old son of a sheriff’s deputy  at Florida State University, killing two people and wounding at least six others, investigators said.
Officers quickly arrived and shot and wounded the shooter after he refused to comply with commands, Tallahassee police Chief Lawrence Revell said.
Authorities had not yet revealed a motive for the shooting, which began about lunchtime just outside the student union, sending frightened students and parents hiding for cover in a bowling alley and a freight elevator inside the building.
The shooter, identified by police as Phoenix Ikner, is believed to be a Florida State student, investigators said. The two people who died were not students, Florida State University Police Chief Jason Trumbower said, adding he would not release additional information about the victims.
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The shooter obtained access to a weapon that belongs to his mother, who has been with the sheriff’s office for more than 18 years and has been a model employee, Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil said. Police said they believed Ikner shot the victims using his mother's former service handgun, which she kept for personal use after the force upgraded to new weapons.
The alleged shooter was a long-standing member of the sheriff’s office’s youth advisory council, the sheriff said.
“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.â€
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including a forensics van, are stationed outside of Florida State University’s student union building, the scene of a shooting, Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)
Witness says the suspect's shotgun jammed
Ambulances, firetrucks and patrol vehicles from multiple law enforcement agencies raced toward the campus just west of Florida's capital after the university issued an active shooter alert.
Aidan Stickney, a 21-year-old studying business management, was running late to class when he said he saw a man get out of a car with a shotgun and aim at another man in a white polo shirt.
The gun jammed, Stickney said, and the shooter rushed back to his car and emerged with a handgun, opening fire on a woman. Stickney ran, warning others as he called 911.
“I got lucky today. I really did. I really, really did,†he said.
Trumbower said investigators have no evidence that anyone was shot with the shotgun.
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including a forensics van, are stationed outside of Florida State University’s student union building, the scene of a shooting, Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)
Shots sent students scattering
Ryan Cedergren, a 21-year-old communications student, said he and about 30 others hid in the bowling alley in the union's lower level after seeing students running from a nearby bar.
“In that moment, it was survival,†he said.
Chris Pento said he and his twins were getting lunch at the student union during a campus tour when they heard gunshots. “It was surreal. And people just started running,†he told WCTV in Tallahassee.
They crammed into a service elevator after encountering locked doors at the end of a hallway. “That was probably the scariest point because we didn’t know. It could get worse, right?†he said. “The doors opened and two officers were there, guns drawn.â€
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including a forensics van, were parked outside the student union hours after the shooting. Officers blocked off the area with crime scene tape.
Students and staff who left behind phones, keys and other items in the rush to evacuate waited in the shade and prayed for the victims.
Tallahassee Memorial Hospital confirmed it was treating six people wounded in the shooting, one in critical condition.
People comfort each other on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee, where law enforcement responded to a reported active shooter incident Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)
Shooting shocks campus and the nation
President Donald Trump said from the Oval Office that he had been fully briefed on the shooting. “It’s a horrible thing. It’s horrible that things like this take place,†he said.
But Trump also suggested that he would not be advocating for any new gun legislation, saying, “The gun doesn’t do the shooting, the people do.â€
After receiving warnings of an active shooter, students and faculty took cover and waited in classrooms, offices and dorms across campus.
The first thing you think of is just, ‘This can’t be true,’ right?†said Kai McGalla, a sophomore who spoke by phone while locked down at a campus testing center.
Junior Joshua Sirmans, 20, was in the main library when alarms went off. Law enforcement officers escorted him and other students from the library with their hands over their heads, he said.
University President Richard McCullough said he was heartbroken by the violence. “Our hearts go out to our students and the victims of this terrible tragedy," he said.
Florida State University students wait for news amid an active shooter incident at the school’s campus in Tallahassee, Fla., Thursday, April 17, 2025 (AP Photo/Kate Payne)
Another shooting a decade ago at Florida State
Florida State is one of Florida’s 12 public universities, with its main campus in Tallahassee. About 44,000 students are enrolled in the university, according to the school’s 2024 fact sheet.
In 2014, the main library was the site of a . Officers shot and killed the gunman, 31-year-old Myron May.
The university canceled classes for the rest of the week and canceled home athletic events through Sunday.
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Fischer reported from Fort Lauderdale. Associated Press reporters Stephany Matat in West Palm Beach, Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Michael Schneider in Orlando, Mike Balsamo in New York, Eric Tucker and Christopher Megerian in Washington and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
A list of deadly shootings on college campuses in the US
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including a forensics van, are stationed outside of Florida State University’s student union building April 17, 2025, in Tallahassee, Fla., after a shooting. Two people were killed and at least six others were wounded. The gun used in the shooting belonged to the 20-year-old suspect's mother, who has worked for the sheriff’s office for 18 years, authorities said. They described the gun as her former service weapon. Experts say mass shootings on college campuses, though rare, are often on the minds of students today because they grew up participating in active shooter drills in elementary and high school. Here is a look at other deadly shootings on U.S. college campuses in recent decades.
Michigan State University students embrace Feb. 14, 2023, at The Rock on the East Lansing, Mich., campus. A fired inside an academic building and the student union, killing three students and injuring five others. He later killed himself miles away from the campus while being confronted by police. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at .
Amanda Perez, left, is comforted Dec. 6, 2023, by fellow student Alejandro Barron after a shooting on the University of Nevada campus in Las Vegas. A 67-year-old , whose applications to teach at UNLV were rejected, opened fire in the building housing the university's business school, killing three professors and badly wounding a fourth. The gunman was killed in a shootout with police outside the building.
A University of Virginia football player speaks Nov. 19, 2022, during a memorial service for three slain University of Virginia football players Lavel Davis Jr., D'Sean Perry and Devin Chandler at John Paul Jones Arena at the school in Charlottesville, Va. A of the school’s football team shot and killed the players on a charter bus as they returned from a field trip, setting off panic and a 12-hour lockdown of the campus until the suspect was captured. Two other students also were wounded on the campus. The shooter pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges.
Authorities gather Oct. 9, 2015, outside a student dormitory in Flagstaff, Ariz., after an early morning fight between two groups of college students escalated into gunfire, authorities said. Just weeks into his freshman year, a student walked onto the Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff and opened fire. One student was killed and three others wounded. The to manslaughter and aggravated assault and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Hannah Miles, a student at , speaks with reporters Oct. 1, 2015, in Roseburg, Ore. A 26-year-old man opened fire on his writing class, killing his instructor and eight other people at the school, then killed himself. Miles said she was in the classroom next door to the shooting, which also wounded nine others.
A woman looks at bullet holes May 24, 2014, in a window of IV Deli Mark, where a near the University of California, Santa Barbara campus, in the Isla Vista beach community. A 22-year-old college student frustrated over sexual rejections fatally stabbed or shot six students near the school and injured several others before he killed himself.
Santa Monica College students Gaby Contreras, left, and Andrea Garcia leave flowers at a memorial for those killed in a shooting at the school in Santa Monica, Calif. A deadly act of domestic violence at home turned public June 7, 2013, when a left after killing his father and older brother, carjacked a woman and shot at other vehicles. He then entered the campus, where he previously was enrolled as a student, and opened fire, killing four more people before he was fatally shot by police in the school's library.
Maria Campomanes and her daughter Maelauni leave flowers for victims outside of Oikos University in Oakland, Calif. A fatally shot seven people April 2, 2012, at the small private college in East Oakland, California. He was given seven consecutive life sentences and died in prison in 2019.
Mourners console each other after placing flowers at a memorial at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill. A 27-year-old former student shot and and wounded more than 20 others at the school Feb. 14, 2008, before killing himself.
Students gather on the campus of Virginia Tech for a candlelight vigil April 17, 2007, a day after a shooting, in Blacksburg, Va. In the , a 23-year-old student killed 32 people on the campus. More than two dozen others were wounded. The gunman then killed himself.
Smoke rises from a sniper's gun Aug. 1, 1966, as he fires at people from the tower of the University of Texas administration building in Austin, Texas. A Marine-trained sniper opened fire from atop the 27-story clock tower in the heart of the university's flagship campus in . He killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others before authorities shot and killed him.
