TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A gunman opened fire Thursday at Florida State University, killing two folks and wounding at the very least six others, police mentioned. The 20-year-old gunman is the son of a sheriff’s deputy whose former service weapon was used within the taking pictures, authorities mentioned.
The 2 individuals who died weren’t college students on the college, however the shooter is believed to be a pupil, mentioned Florida State College Police Chief Jason Trumbower.
5 folks had been being handled at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Trumbower mentioned, and the shooter can also be receiving medical consideration.
This is the most recent:
FSU college students absorb a campus crime scene
As nightfall fell Thursday, college students walked the grounds of Florida State College, taking within the sight of their campus now rendered against the law scene ringed with investigators’ yellow tape. A number of college students sat silently earlier than a small memorial of candles and flowers close to the scholar union.
Tables that had been set as much as plug native condominium complexes and hashish dispensaries sat deserted alongside a tree-lined walkway exterior the brick constructing, near the scene of the noon taking pictures.
Additionally left behind within the obvious scramble for security: a pair of sandals, a half-full Starbucks matcha latte, notes from a chemistry class scattered throughout the bottom.
Police block entry to space the place suspected shooter’s household lives
A Tallahassee Police Division patrol automotive was stationed Thursday night close to the road the place the suspected Florida State College shooter’s household lives, blocking reporters from approaching the house in a well-kept suburban neighborhood on town’s east facet.
College president visits a few of wounded in hospital
FSU president Richard McCullough says he has visited a number of the wounded college students within the hospital.
McCullough additionally known as the campus law enforcement officials “absolute heroes” and says their response to the taking pictures “prevented this from being an even bigger tragedy.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis mentioned in a message posted on social media that “we’re all Seminoles in the present day. We stand by to assist in any method that we are able to.”
Witness says the suspect’s shotgun jammed
Aidan Stickney, a 21-year-old learning enterprise administration, says he was working late to class when he noticed a person get out of a automotive with a shotgun and goal at one other man in a white polo shirt.
Stickney says the gun jammed and the shooter rushed again to the automotive and emerged with a handgun, opening hearth on a girl. Stickney ran, warning others as he known as 911.
“I bought fortunate in the present day. I actually did. I actually, actually did,” he says.
College Police Chief Trumbower says investigators don’t have any proof that anybody was shot with the shotgun.
All six sufferers wounded throughout taking pictures are in truthful situation, hospital says
All six sufferers wounded in the course of the taking pictures are in truthful situation, based on an replace from Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. The hospital mentioned earlier Thursday that a type of wounded was in crucial situation.
The alleged shooter is among the many wounded, having been shot by arriving officers after refusing to adjust to instructions, officers mentioned.
Two individuals who weren’t FSU college students died within the taking pictures. FSU Police Chief Jason Trumbower says he won’t be releasing further details about the victims.
FBI requires images, video and different info for its investigation
The FBI is urging anybody at or close to the taking pictures scenes to ship images, video recordings or different info to an FBI web site accumulating ideas for what was known as a really lively investigation.
Metropolis police Chief Revell says of responding officers’ confrontation with the gunman that they “challenged him they usually ended up taking pictures him. He didn’t adjust to instructions and was shot. I don’t consider he fired in any respect.”
“For sure now we have a number of crime scenes” with a whole bunch or much more witnesses, Revell says.
College students moved classroom desks to barricade door earlier than police escorted them out
Andres Perez, a 20-year-old junior, was in a classroom close to the Pupil Union when the alarm sounded for a lockdown. He mentioned his classmates started transferring desks in entrance of the door. Law enforcement officials got here to escort them out about quarter-hour later.
“I at all times hand around in the Pupil Union,” Perez mentioned. “So the second I came upon that the menace was there, my coronary heart sank and I used to be scared.”
Perez says he’s unsure what he’ll do when lessons ultimately resume.
“I’m pondering that I’ve finals across the nook. College’s about to wrap up in simply two weeks,” Perez mentioned. “And there’s a lot to consider. There are such a lot of feelings there.”
Officers wounded shooter after he refused to adjust to instructions, chief says
Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell says officers shot and wounded the shooter after he refused to adjust to instructions.
Officers say the shooter, recognized by police as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, is believed to be a Florida State pupil.
Authorities haven’t but revealed a motive for the taking pictures.
Gunman used former service weapon belonging to mom, a deputy, sheriff says
Sheriff McNeil says the alleged shooter, Phoenix Ikner, had entry to a former service weapon that had been utilized by his mom, a deputy with the Leon County Sheriff’s Workplace for 18 years.
“She has an amazing job that she’s finished, her service to this neighborhood has been distinctive,” McNeil mentioned throughout a information convention. “Sadly, her son had entry to certainly one of her weapons, and that was one of many weapons that was discovered on the scene.”
McNeil says that as a member of the sheriff’s workplace Youth Advisory Council, Ikner had been “engaged in plenty of coaching applications that now we have.”
“So it’s not a shock to us that he had entry to weapons,” McNeil says.
Shooter fired at people round pupil union constructing, official says
College police chief Jason Trumbower says the shooter opened hearth at about 11:50 a.m., taking pictures people across the pupil union constructing.
Trumbower says authorities wouldn’t be releasing details about the victims, together with whether or not they had been college students. However he did verify the 2 individuals who had been killed weren’t college students on the college.
Sheriff says alleged shooter was a member of his workplace’s youth advisory council
Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil revealed the alleged shooter’s identification and his relation to Deputy Jessica Ikner, who has been with the sheriff’s workplace for over 18 years.
McNeil says the alleged shooter was a long-standing member of the sheriff’s workplace’s youth advisory council and engaged in plenty of coaching applications with the workplace.
“That is clearly a heinous crime,” McNeil mentioned. “We’ll make it possible for we do every part we are able to to prosecute and make it possible for we ship a message to people that this may by no means be tolerated right here in Leon County, and I dare say throughout the state and throughout this nation.”
Police determine alleged FSU shooter and make sure 2 are lifeless and 6 had been injured
Police officers have confirmed that two individuals are lifeless and 6 had been injured within the taking pictures, together with the 20-year-old shooter, who was the son of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy.
Police say they consider Phoenix Ikner shot the victims utilizing his mother and father’ former service handgun and was a present pupil at FSU.
Trump says taking pictures is a “disgrace,” however he wont’ be advocating for any new gun laws
Requested about taking pictures, Trump mentioned “it’s a disgrace,” including that he knew the varsity and the realm “very nicely.”
However Trump advised that he wouldn’t be advocating for any new gun laws, saying, “the gun doesn’t do the taking pictures, the folks do.”
Talking to reporters within the Oval Workplace, Trump known as himself a “huge advocate” of the Second Modification and the suitable to bear arms.
The shooter was the son of a sheriff’s deputy
The shooter is the 20-year-old son of a sheriff’s deputy, who obtained entry to their dad or mum’s weapon, the FSU police chief mentioned.
The shooter was “engaged in plenty of coaching applications” that the company supplied, he added.
2 lifeless and at the very least 5 wounded in taking pictures
FSU Police Chief Jason Trumbower confirmed two deaths from a Florida State College taking pictures at about midday Thursday.
The 2 folks killed weren’t college students on the college, however the shooter is believed to be a pupil.
5 individuals are being handled at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, and the shooter can also be receiving medical consideration, he mentioned.
FSU cancels lessons via Friday
Florida State College is canceling lessons via Friday, which is 2 weeks earlier than the college’s scheduled graduation ceremony for graduates on Could 2 to three.
The college’s official finals week per its tutorial calendar is scheduled to begin April 28.
College lifts lockdown
FSU’s alert system introduced shortly after 3 p.m. that legislation enforcement had “neutralized the menace.”
Officers are asking college students and school to keep away from the Pupil Union and several other different areas which can be nonetheless thought-about an lively crime scene. Individuals are in any other case free to maneuver in regards to the campus.
‘It was a little bit of a surreal second’
Jake Nair, a senior at Florida State College, was learning within the library when a police officer dashed out of the constructing, yelling for everybody to remain in place.
“He ran exterior together with his gun out,” Nair mentioned. “Not all the scholars heard him, and a few of them ran out the again of the library.”
Nair mentioned an alarm within the library then went off and a recorded message warned college students to shelter in place due to an lively shooter on campus.
Then about 5 officers got here into the library and escorted the scholars out with their arms up.
“I feel they simply wished to ensure none of us had a weapon on us,” Nair mentioned. “To be sincere, it was a little bit of a surreal second. It’s the form of factor you solely see on the information.”
This is not the primary taking pictures at FSU
For some Florida State College college and staffers who’ve been on campus for the previous dozen years, Thursday’s occasions introduced again recollections of one other taking pictures on the college’s most important library greater than a decade in the past.
Three folks in 2014 had been shot simply inside and outside the doorway of Strozier Library in the course of FSU’s campus. Officers who arrived inside two minutes of the primary name shot and killed the gunman, 31-year-old Myron Could.
Three bullets struck 21-year-old pupil Farhan “Ronny” Ahmed, together with a shot that severely broken his backbone and left him paralyzed from the waist down. The opposite two victims had been library worker Nathan Scott who was shot within the leg and later launched from the hospital and a pupil who was grazed by a bullet.
Could, a 2005 FSU graduate and an legal professional, reloaded at the very least as soon as and tried to enter the library, however was blocked by foyer safety boundaries. Police responded and fired off a barrage of bullets that killed him.
Movies and a journal obtained by police point out Could thought he was being watched and focused by the federal government.
Close by Florida A&M College cancels lessons
Florida A&M College, a college minutes away from Florida State College in Tallahassee, announced Thursday afternoon that lessons and pupil actions are canceled for the remainder of the day, in response to the taking pictures.
Staff have the choice to work remotely for the remainder of the day.
‘We didn’t know — it might worsen, proper?’
Chris Pento instructed Tallahassee TV station WCTV that he was on campus Thursday for a tour together with his twins and that they had been inside the scholar union getting lunch once they heard gunshots.
“It was surreal. And other people simply began working,” he instructed the TV station.
Pento mentioned he and several other others crammed right into a service elevator after first encountering locked doorways on the finish of a hallway.
“That was most likely the scariest level as a result of we didn’t know — it might worsen, proper?” he mentioned. “The doorways opened, and two officers had been there, weapons drawn.”
He mentioned the officers requested in the event that they’d seen something after which pointed them to security.
‘It’s so onerous to consider’
Kai McGalla, an FSU sophomore learning finance and Spanish, was taking a check on Excel spreadsheets at a testing middle on campus when he began to listen to sirens headed to the scholar union a couple of 20-minute stroll away. The check proctor instructed them they had been being locked down on the middle due to the taking pictures.
“I’m in shock, you recognize, it’s so onerous to consider,” McGalla mentioned by telephone whereas nonetheless locked down on the testing middle. “The very first thing you consider is simply, ‘This could’t be true,’ proper?”
Florida State cancels all residence athletic occasions via Sunday
The canceled occasions embody three baseball and three softball video games.
It’s not instantly clear if FSU groups scheduled for street occasions can even see their video games canceled or postponed.
‘In that second, it was survival’
Ryan Cedergren, a 21-year-old communications pupil, mentioned he and about 30 others hid within the bowling alley within the decrease degree of the scholar union after seeing college students working from a close-by bar.
“In that second, it was survival,” Cedergren mentioned.
After about quarter-hour of hiding, college police escorted the scholars out of the union, and Cedergren mentioned he noticed an individual receiving emergency remedy on the garden.
Trump has been ‘totally briefed’
The president opened his Oval Workplace assembly with the Italian prime minister with feedback on the taking pictures at Florida State College.
Trump mentioned he had been “totally briefed.”
“It’s a horrible factor. It’s horrible that issues like this happen,” he mentioned.
What to learn about FSU
Florida State College is certainly one of Florida’s 12 public universities, with its most important campus positioned in Tallahassee, the place the taking pictures occurred, simply minutes from the state Capitol constructing. About 44,300 college students are enrolled within the college, per the varsity’s 2024 truth sheet.
Not less than six folks have been hospitalized
One individual is in crucial situation, a spokesperson for Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare mentioned. The opposite sufferers are in critical situation, the spokesperson mentioned.
A suspect has been taken into police custody
A suspect has been taken into police custody and a number of victims had been reported in a taking pictures Thursday at Florida State College, an individual acquainted with the matter instructed The Related Press.
The extent of the victims’ accidents was not instantly identified and there have been no further particulars about the one that was in custody.
The individual was not licensed to publicly talk about particulars of the continuing investigation and spoke to The AP on situation of anonymity.
By Mike Balsamo
FBI brokers are on the scene, officers say
Legal professional Common Pam Bondi mentioned in a social media put up that the Justice Division is in contact with FBI brokers who’re on the scene.
“Our precedence is the protection of everybody concerned,” Bondi wrote on X. “We’ll maintain updating as we study extra. Praying for all.”
In a social media put up, FBI Director Kash Patel mentioned that he and his group had been briefed on the taking pictures and that brokers from the bureau’s Jacksonville area workplace had been on the college. “We’ll present full help to native legislation enforcement as wanted,” Patel mentioned. “Please maintain the FSU neighborhood in your prayers.”
Governor responds to lively taking pictures
“Our prayers are with our FSU household and state legislation enforcement is actively responding,” Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X.
Scene on campus
Ambulances, hearth vans and patrol automobiles from a number of legislation enforcement businesses raced towards the campus after the college issued an lively shooter alert noon Thursday, saying police had been responding close to the scholar union.
A whole bunch of scholars streamed away from the path of the scholar union. College students had been glued to their telephones, some visibly emotional, whereas others hugged one another. Dozens gathered close to the music college, ready for information.
Copyright 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
