On Thursday, April 17, a 20-year-old FSU student by the name of Phoenix Ikner opened fire outside the student union building on the Tallahassee campus, shortly before noon, killing two and wounding six. Inker obtained the gun from his step-mom, Jessica Inker, who is a current deputy at the Leon County Sheriff’s office.
As reported by ABC News, Phoenix was said to have arrived at a campus parking garage around 11 a.m. He was then spotted leaving at 11:51 a.m. after moving in and out of his car for almost an hour. Between 11:56 and 11:57 a.m. is when he started firing, with the first 911 call coming in at 11:58 a.m. At noon, the gunman was shot by police and taken into custody, where Inker was hospitalized, but expected to survive. Inker is not set to be charged until he is discharged.
Anne-Mari Eriksen, Inker’s biological mom, said, “When I heard what had happened, I was frantic … thought he might be the one hurt. And then, when I found out it was him, I just collapsed at work,” when she first heard about the shooting, according to ABC.
Inker’s step-mom, Jessica, was on duty as a resource officer at a local middle school at the time of the shooting. She has taken an indefinite personal leave of absence following the incident, according to the Leon County Sheriff’s office. They have launched an internal investigation, but have not found that the deputy violated any policies.
The two victims who passed were 45-year-old Tiru Chabba, an employee of a campus vendor who was a husband and a father of two, and 57-year-old Robert Morales, a dining service coordinator at the university for the past nine years. The other six victims are expected to make full recoveries.
One of the victims who survived the shooting was 23-year-old graduate student Madison Askins. She was walking with a friend by the student union building when they heard gunshots and “took off running,” but “unfortunately, I fell,” said Askins. Her friend tried to help her up, but when Askins was shot, it prompted her friend to run to safety. As she lay wounded, she thought to play dead because “I know for certain if I was moving, he would’ve shot me again,” she said to ABC when recalling hearing Inker reload his gun. Eventually, the gunman left, and Askins stayed where she was until an officer came to her aid.
The biggest thing that stands out about Askins is that a video of the 23-year-old bleeding on a patch of grass has gone viral on social media. A student is seen filming her playing dead on the ground for a few seconds, not doing anything to help, with a Starbucks drink in hand. This video has been seen on multiple platforms and viewed over 1000s of times, receiving swarms of backlash. One X user stated, “Needs to be kicked out of FSU,” concerning the individual who shot the video.
Another student at FSU, Robbie Alhadeff, was immediately brought back to Feb. 14, 2018, where he lost his 14-year-old freshman sister in the Parkland shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School.
“A lot of the people I’m friends with are from Parkland, and a lot of them go to FSU,” Alhadeff said. “This is the second time it’s happened … and no one I know wants to go back to school,” in an interview with ABC.
When President Donald Trump made a statement regarding the shooting, he said he has an “obligation to protect” the Second Amendment when asked by a reporter in the Oval Office if he sees anything “broken” with America’s current gun laws.
“Look, I’m a big advocate of the Second Amendment. I have been from the beginning. I protected it, and these things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting. The people do. It’s a phrase that’s used probably too often,” Trump said.
President of FSU, Richard McCullough, called the shooting a “tragic and senseless act of violence.”
“Our hearts are heavy after the tragedy that took place on Apr 17,” McCullough said in a statement on April 19. “We are grieving with the families and friends who lost someone they love. And we are with all those who were injured and are now recovering. This has shaken all of us, and I want you to know: We are here for you.”
Classes and sporting events at FSU were canceled through the weekend, but were set to resume Monday, April 21.
