FSU Shooter: Deputy’s Stepson Used Her Handgun In Attack Caught On Video

The man who murdered two people and wounded six others at Florida State University on Thursday is the 20-year-old stepson of a sheriff’s deputy, and he used her personal handgun. Video has emerged showing Phoenix Ikner gunning shooting at victims at the Tallahassee campus. Meanwhile, social media users are rushing to associate the fiend with whatever political philosophy they happen to oppose, and gun control advocates are again using a tragedy to justify proposed “reforms” that wouldn’t have changed the outcome.  

Police say Ikner’s shooting spree started around noon, with a campus-wide alert sent at 12:02: “Continue to seek shelter and await further instructions. Lock and stay away from all doors and windows and be prepared to take additional protective measures.” Student Raeleen McDaniel said her class was watching a Korean history video when the gunfire erupted. “At first we thought it was the video, but then we realized it was real shots,” she told the Miami Herald. 

“[The shooter] has been steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family, engaged in a number of training programs that we have,” Sheriff Walter A. McNeil told reporters. “So it’s not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons.” Indicating the victim’s identify hit the department hard, he said the rampage “is tragic in more ways than you people in the audience could ever [fathom.]” Ikner’s association with the sheriff’s office included past membership in the office’s Youth Advisory Council, a group meant to serve as a communication channel between young people and local law enforcement.  

The handgun was the former service weapon of Ikner’s stepmother, a Leon County School Resource Officer with an 18-year sheriff’s office career. Jennifer Ikner purchased it for her personal use, as is allowed by department policy. Depending on the course of the investigation, his stepmother could face some career repercussions, and perhaps criminal and civil-suit peril as well. Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil said the deputy has not been suspended.

Phoenix Ikner was also toting a shotgun, though police initially didn’t think he fired it.  “We have not confirmed anyone was shot with a shotgun but that could change,” said FSU Police Chief Jason Trumbower. A witness told NBC that she saw Ikner exit an orange Hummer with a “rifle.” “I think he was shooting and he missed. So he goes back into his car and grabs a pistol, then he turns and shoots the lady in front of him. That’s when I just started running,” said McKenzie Heeter. Police say they shot Ikner after he ignored multiple commands. Ikner then remained silent, refusing to answer police questions. This tweet purports to show Ikner being carted off: 

Ikner was himself a political science student at Florida State, and this video captured him selecting and firing at victims at an outdoor green space, with one apparently already on the ground: 

FSU Shooter captured on camera shooting at victims. There also appears to be a victim on the ground beside him at the start of the video. pic.twitter.com/3Fesu10s0M

— The Space Coast Rocket (@CoastRocket) April 17, 2025

Social media was collectively aghast at this video taken of a bloodied victim, with the person who recorded it casually strolling and sipping coffee, showing no curiosity about the person’s condition, or interest in rendering aid: 

This is what our society has come to. Walking by someone on the ground who is bleeding out while filming it for social media and drinking a $10 Starbucks. Disgusting.

The real battle is societal…

Thankfully the word is that this victim is still alive. pic.twitter.com/iccO1zAFGU

— niner (@Jniner69) April 17, 2025

As in the wake of any mass murder, social media has lit up with people working to discern the shooter’s political orientation to their own side’s advantage. Here’s what we know on that front: Ikner is a registered Republican. Ian Townsend, who shared two classes with Ikner in the fall, told the Herald that Ikner was typically quiet, and frequently wore an NRA shirt and a “Don’t Tread On Me” shirt. His backpack was adorned with pro-police patches, and on the day after Trump’s 2024 victory, he attended their oceanography class wearing a Trump hat, Townsend said.  

A previous classmate of Ikner at Tallahassee State College, Reid Seybold, told NBC News he asked Ikner to stop attending a political discussion club because “he espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric and far-right rhetoric.” Given the low threshold that leftists apply when casting such aspersions, that doesn’t tell us very much. Naturally, NBC’s quotes of Seybold don’t include any specific examples of his supposed “white supremacist rhetoric.” In a laughable internal contradiction seemingly lost on NBC, the current president of that club said it was odd that Ikner would come to a club that exists for debate and political discourse — and choose to advocate President Trump’s agenda. That club president chimed in that many in the club regarded Ikner as a “fascist.”  

All the gun control groups are carrying on with their messaging on the FSU shooting as if we didn’t learn that the suspect stole his cop mom’s gun, which obliterates any gun control argument arising from this attack.

Shameless. https://t.co/QHHm6noAfU

— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) April 18, 2025

Amid social media posters’ race to associate the shooter with their political foes, this quote from Ikner from a January FSU News article about a Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society protest has been pinging around X: 

“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.”

Consistent with her record of far-from-stellar commentary in the wake of major incidents, Laura Loomer was among many who clumsily concluded that, because Ikner was quoted in an article about a leftist protest, he must have been a participant in the leftist protest — even though the paragraph that precedes his remarks makes clear he was an onlooker offering detached commentary, and the quote itself isn’t clearly indicative of any political orientation: 

In a bizarre editorial move, FSU News deleted that quote from the online article, inserting an explanation that’s as baffling as it is limp-wristed:

“An earlier version of this article included a quote from the gunman in the April 17 shooting at FSU and was removed at the decision of our editors to maintain ethical journalistic standards and avoid amplifying the voice of an individual responsible for violence.”

Early reporting suggests that Deputy Ikner is not Phoenix’s biological mother. A woman identified as his biological mother was accused of removing then-10-year-old Phoenix from the United States in violation of a custody arrangement, taking him to Norway. Court documents say that Phoenix — originally named Christian Eriksen — is a dual US-Norwegian citizen, like his biological mother. Phoenix was the subject of 16 years of custody battles sprinkled with libel and slander accusations, which only ended in 2023.  Phoenix’s father, Christopher Ikner, married Jessica Ikner in 2010.

The profile on Ikner’s lightly-used Instagram page features a bible quote: “You are my war club, my weapon for battle; with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.” We don’t think God was referring to college campuses.