Today's Edition
The New York Times News Service
A 20-year-old student at Florida State University in Tallahassee shot and killed two people Thursday and injured six, police said. The gunman was identified as the son of a deputy in the local sheriff’s department and was taken into custody after being shot by police, law enforcement officials said.
Officials said the gunman, Phoenix Ikner, was armed with a former service revolver of his mother, a deputy who has worked at the Leon County Sheriff’s Office for 18 years and was allowed to keep the gun for personal use.
Ikner had been involved in training programs at the sheriff’s office and was a member of its youth advisory committee, Sheriff Walter McNeil told reporters.
Chief Lawrence E. Revell of the Tallahassee Police Department said Ikner also had a shotgun with him, but Revell said he was not sure that gun was used in the attack.
The two people killed in the shooting were not students, law enforcement officials said. They had not been identified as of Thursday evening.
Ikner was shot and wounded by responding officers after he did not obey their commands, officials said.
Revell said he believed that Ikner acted alone. "There is no further threat to our community,” he said. He added that Ikner had "invoked his right not to speak to us.”
The shooting occurred shortly before noon, sending students and staff to seek cover on a warm, sunny day in Tallahassee when many were outside. The university soon issued a shelter-in-place alert, and officers raced to the campus and began escorting people out of academic buildings.
Television footage captured the chaotic aftermath of the shooting: shoes scattered on the lawns of the campus; chairs in one classroom piled in a makeshift barricade against a door; and students leaving the campus with their hands in the air.
President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the shooting. "It’s a shame, a horrible thing. It’s horrible that things like this take place,” he said.
University officials cancelled all classes, events and business operations for the rest of the week. All athletic events were cancelled through the weekend. The last day of classes is next Friday.
