Another in an Epidemic of U.S. School Shootings

"I heard some gunshots and then, you know, just blacked out after."

"Everyone was crying and just panicking. We were trying to barricade ourselves in a little corner in t he basement, trying to protect ourselves as much as we could." 

Carolina Sena, 21, accounting student

 

"The shooter obtained 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."

"The shooter was a long-standing member of the sheriff's office youth advisory council."

"He has been steeped in the Leon County Sheriff's Office family, engaged in a number of training programs that we have."

"So it's not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons."

Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil

Police investigate the scene of a shooting near the student union at Florida State University on April 17, 2025 in Tallahassee, Florida.   Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images

 

Terrified students barricaded doors and fled across their campus in Tallahassee, Florida, leaving behind chemistry notes, shoes and other personal belongings in a desperate attempt to escape a shooting in progress where two men were shot to death and some six other individuals were wounded by a 20-year-old who opened fire at Florida State University on Thursday.

 

The young man involved, identified as Phoenix Ikner by police, is a Florida State student, son of a sheriff's deputy. He used his mother's former service weapon for his lethal shooting spree, according to investigators, although a motive for the shooting that took place just outside the student union during the lunch break has not yet been revealed by authorities. 

21-year-old Aidan Stickney, a student in business management was late to class and was witness to the arrival of the shooter. He watched a man with a shotgun exit a vehicle and take aim at another man in a polo shirt, walking by. When the gun jammed, the shooter ran back to his car, then emerged with a handgun, and opened fire on a woman. Stickney ran from the scene warning others to beware, then called 911. "I got lucky today. I really did. I really, really did", he said.

 

Arriving police shot and wounded the gunman when he refused to obey their commands. The two people who were shot were not students, they were passersby in the wrong place at the wrong time. Five others were struck and wounded by gunfire. A sixth individual sustained injuries in their rush to evacuate the scene. The shooter was taken to hospital with "serious but non-life-threatening injuries", reported Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell.

"As a father of several children, this is the thing we fear most. This is that random act of violence that seems to have no meaning or rhyme, reason to it."

"To know that your child was on that campus, to know that your child may or may not have been involved and not know that, I can only imagine the terror and the fear."

Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell

Two people were gunned down in a shooting at Florida State University. One of the victims worked in food services (Getty Images)