Investigators say two males were murdered and at least six people were injured in a shooting at Florida State University when a 20-year-old started fire, causing frightened students to barricade doors and flee across campus, leaving behind chemical notes and even shoes.
As students and professors attempted to begin recovering from the shooting that had sent shockwaves of panic across the campus the day before, memorials of candles and flowers were scattered throughout the campus by early Friday, and a school-wide vigil had been planned.
Accounting student Carolina Sena, 21, who was inside the student union when the shooting began, said, “I heard some gunshots and then, you know, just blacked out after.” Everyone was in a frenzy and crying. In an effort to defend ourselves as much as possible, we were attempting to barricade ourselves in a little basement nook.
Investigators think the shooter, identified by police as Phoenix Ikner, is a Florida State student and the son of a sheriff’s officer who used his mother’s old service pistol to fire.
The shooting started Thursday at lunchtime just outside the student union, and authorities have not yet disclosed a motive.
When the gunman refused to follow orders, officers hurried to the scene and fired and wounded him, according to Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell.
Jason Trumbower, the chief of police at Florida State University, stated that the two individuals slain were not students and that he would not provide any more details on the fatalities.
According to Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil, the shooter was able to secure a firearm that belonged to his mother, who has been a model employee for more than 18 years with the sheriff’s office.
Police said they thought Ikner used his mother’s old service firearm, which she had retained for her own use when the force switched to new weaponry, to shoot the victims.
Revell said in a statement Thursday night that five of the wounded were hit by gunfire, and a sixth was injured while attempting to flee.
According to a representative for Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, they were all in fair condition.
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According to the sheriff, the shooter had been a regular member of the juvenile advisory council of the sheriff’s office.
The suspect’s shotgun jammed, according to the witness
Following the university’s active shooter alert, numerous law enforcement agencies’ ambulances, fire engines, and patrol cars sped toward the campus, which is located just west of the state capital of Florida.
A 21-year-old business management student named Aidan Stickney claimed that while he was late for class, he witnessed a man with a shotgun exit a car and shoot at another man wearing a white polo shirt.
Stickney claimed that after the pistol jammed, the shooter hurried back to his vehicle and came out brandishing a weapon before shooting a woman. Stickney contacted 911 and fled while cautioning others.
Students were scattered by gunfire
Twenty-year-old Holden Mendez, who studies international affairs and political science, claimed that he had just exited the student union when he heard several gunshots.
He claimed that his prior emergency reaction training came into play when he crashed into a nearby campus building.
Twenty-year-old Andres Perez was in a classroom close to the student union when the lockdown alarm went off. He claimed that after his classmates started shifting desks in front of the door, cops arrived to take them away.
