What we know about the Florida State University shooting suspect

Authorities claim that the student at Florida State University who is accused of shooting two people dead and injuring five others on Thursday is the son of a local sheriff's deputy.

Prior to his alleged attack, the student also participated in training sessions with law enforcement and served on a sheriff's advisory council. According to officials and records, Phoenix Ikner, 20, was carrying a handgun that was Jessica Ikner's service weapon when he was taken into custody.

A review of court records show Phoenix Ikner had a tumultuous childhood, with another woman — identified in the documents as his biological mother — accused of removing him from the US in violation of a custody agreement when he was 10 years old.

The suspect was "steeped in the Leon County Sheriff's Office family and engaged in a number of training programs that we have," Sheriff Walter McNeil told reporters, "so it's not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons." Jessica Ikner has served at the sheriff’s department for more than 18 years, McNeil said, adding that “her service to this community has been exceptional.” She did not respond to a request for comment.

According to a 2021 press release, Phoenix Ikner was a member of the sheriff's Youth Advisory Council, which was established to "provide an open line of communication between the youth of Leon County and local law enforcement." McNeil described him as a “longstanding member” of the council.

On Instagram, an account with Ikner’s name and photo that was taken offline after he was publicly identified included a biblical quote on its profile: “You are my war club, my weapon for battle; with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.”

Ikner is a registered Republican, according to Florida voter registration records. He was mentioned in a January article about anti-Trump protests in advance of the president's inauguration in a student newspaper at Florida State University.

Ikner, who was said to be majoring in political science, was quoted as saying, "These people are usually pretty entertaining, usually not for good reasons." “I think it’s a little too late, he’s (Trump) already going to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 and there’s not really much you can do unless you outright revolt, and I don’t think anyone wants that.”

Stephen Stone, a spokesperson for Florida State University, stated on Friday that Ikner is a student there. Stone was unable to provide further information at this time regarding Ikner's major or the length of time he has been enrolled there.

Ikner was told to leave the political club because of his strange behavior.

Reid Seybold, an FSU student, told CNN he knew Ikner, whom he encountered in an extracurricular political club a few years ago. Seybold said Ikner was asked to leave the group, which discussed current events, due to behavior that unsettled others.

“He had continually made enough people uncomfortable where certain people had stopped coming. That’s kind of when we reached the breaking point with Phoenix, and we asked him to leave,” Seybold told CNN’s Omar Jimenez Thursday.
Ikner's remarks, according to Seybold, were "beyond conservatism."

It has been quite some time. I can’t give exact quotes,” he said. “He talked about the ravages of multiculturalism and communism and how it’s ruining America.”

CNN claims regarding the suspect's beliefs have not been independently verified. Authorities have not yet disclosed any potential motive behind the shooting.

According to court records from Leon County, Ikner's biological mother was accused of breaking a custody agreement by taking him to Norway when he was 10 years old. The court documents refer to the child as Christian Eriksen, and say that he and his biological mother are both dual US-Norwegian citizens.

The shooting suspect later changed his name from Christian Eriksen to Phoenix Ikner, a law enforcement source confirmed to CNN.
According to an affidavit from a sheriff’s detective, the child’s biological mother told his father that she would take him to South Florida for spring break in March 2015. Instead, she “fled the country with him in violation of their custody agreement,” taking him to Norway, the affidavit said.

The suspect’s biological mother pleaded no contest to removing a minor from the state against a court order. She was sentenced to 200 days in jail, 170 of which she had already served, followed by two years of “community control” and then two years of probation, according to court records. She was ordered to have no contact during her sentence with her son or any of his teachers, doctors or counselors, unless allowed by a court.

She later attempted to withdraw her plea, claiming that she had been pressured into it, but was turned down. Since she did not respond to inquiries for clarification, it is not clear whether the suspect's biological mother has communicated with him in the past ten years. But just after the shooting, she posted on Facebook complaining that her son’s dad hadn’t responded when she wrote “to ask if everything is alright with my son, who studies at FSU.”

Community members claimed that they were still having trouble reconciling Phoenix Ikner's alleged attack with his connections to the police. A member of the sheriff's youth council named Kenniyah Houston revealed to CNN that she was shocked to learn that the alleged shooter had served alongside her.

She didn't remember Ikner personally, but she said that the advisory council was focused on improving the community and law enforcement, so his actions were particularly shocking. She stated, "That's what it was all about – making better decisions." “For something like this to happen from someone in a group like that is scary … it’s devastating.”