Tallahassee, Florida, April 17, 2025: Two people were killed and six were injured after an active shooter opened fire on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee on Thursday, law enforcement said at a news conference. The injured victims and the suspected shooter were brought to a local hospital.
The alleged gunman has been identified as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, an FSU student who is the son of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy, Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil said at the briefing.
The suspect was taken into custody after being shot by police, officials said, adding that he invoked his right not to speak with police.
Investigators say the suspect used his mother’s former service weapon, now owned by her as a personal handgun, which was found at the scene. They said he was also armed with a shotgun.
Plice later learned that the sheriff’s deputy is the suspect’s stepmother, and that his birth parents had been engaged in a years-long custody dispute that began in 2007 and lasted until 2023.
The sheriff’s deputy has been at the agency for more than 18 years and her service to the community has been exceptional, the sheriff said. “Unfortunately her son had access to one of her weapons,” Sheriff McNeil said. He also said that the alleged shooter was a longstanding member of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office citizen advisory or youth advisory council and engaged in a number of their training programs. He had “been steeped in the Leon County Sheriff Office’s family,” the sheriff said.
Police said the two people killed in the shooting were not students. The victims’ names have not been released.
Tallahassee police said at about 3:15 p.m. ET that the campus has been secured, although multiple law enforcement agencies remain on site for the ongoing investigation. “Law enforcement has neutralized the threat,” FSU tweeted. The university said the student union and several other buildings on campus should be avoided “as they are still considered an active crime scene.”
Police responded to an active shooter call from the area of the student union around 12:01 p.m., FSU said. Police later said the shooter opened fire at about 11:50 a.m. The school sent an alert warning those on campus to “seek shelter and await further instructions.” The university also cautioned students to lock and stay away from all doors and windows.
The wounded are being treated at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Hospital, a hospital spokesperson confirmed to CBS News Miami. The hospital said all patients were in fair condition as of around 4:30 p.m.
Ava Arenado, an FSU student who was in class when the university alert went out, described a terrifying scene:
“One of my classmates got an alert on her phone and announced it to the rest of the class,” Arenado told. “My teacher immediately started barricading the door… and then another student said she’d rather go home, so we all just kind of ran to our cars.”
FSU student Blake Leonard told,he heard a total of about 30 shots fired. Leonard said he was about 400 feet from the student union when he heard gunfire and started running.
“I heard about 12 shots go off. In my head I thought it was construction at first, until I looked behind me and saw people running from the union towards my direction, and then I heard another 12 or 15 shots go off, so I started running away from there too,” he said.
Students place flowers at a makeshift memorial near the scene of a shooting on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee