TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Students stood in prayer circles and piled balloons, candles and teddy bears along a sidewalk Friday near Florida State University’s student union, where two people were shot and killed and six others were wounded during a rampage lasting less five minutes.
The gunman, identified as the son of a sheriff’s deputy, arrived on campus an hour before the shooting Thursday and stayed near a parking garage before he walked in and out of buildings and green spaces and firing a handgun just before lunchtime, police said.
In roughly four minutes, officers confronted 20-year-old son Phoenix Ikner, a Florida State student, and shot and wounded him, Tallahassee police said.
Police have said two men who were not students died in the shooting. Five other victims also were shot, and another person was hurt running away.
Medical staff at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare said they treated six people for gunshots and all were expected to survive.
They would not give any information about those people's identies or say whether the suspect was among them. Police said earlier that he was taken to a local hospital.
Some of the wounded were students, according to university President Richard McCullough. al.
Classes were canceled Friday, but some students came to campus to retrieve backpacks and laptops they left behind when they barricaded classroom doors and eventually fled to safety.
“I don’t think any words can do it justice,” said Audrey Rothman, one of three members of the Florida State women’s volleyball team who brought flowers and held hands in a brief prayer circle.
Police believe Ikner used a former service weapon that belongs to his mother, an 18-year veteran of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Walt McNeil said. In recent years she has worked as a middle school resource officer and was the department’s employee of the month a year ago in March.
After the shooting she requested and was granted personal leave and also reassigned from her post at the school, said Shonda Knight, executive director of community and media relations for the agency.
The suspect was a longstanding member of the Leon County Sheriff’s youth advisory council, police said. The group was created to build communication between young people and local law enforcement while also teaching teens leadership and team-building skills.
He was a junior at FSU studying political science after earning an associates degree last fall from Tallahassee State College, university spokeswoman Amy Farnum-Patronis confirmed.
Authorities have not yet revealed a motive.
The shooting erupted just a few hours before a forum on countering hate on campus was to take place in a classroom building nearby.
The event, titled “United Against Hate: Building a Safer Campus and Community Together,” was part of a project honoring Maura Binkley, a Florida State student who was killed in a mass shooting at a yoga studio in 2018.
A few miles from campus, the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church began its Good Friday service with prayers for the shooting victims and families.
The Rev. R.B. Holmes said he visited the victims at the hospital with Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey, who also attended the service.
“We’re not going to emphasize the tragedy,” Holmes said. “We’re going to emphasize hope and healing. Our faith says we shall overcome. I said to the students, we will be there for them.”
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Associated Press writers Stephany Matat in West Palm Beach, David Fischer in Fort Lauderdale, Michael Schneider in Orlando, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
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