FSU mass shooting kills 2 people, injures 6; suspect in custody

Two people were killed and six were injured after an active shooter opened fire on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee on Thursday, law enforcement said at a news conference. The injured victims and the suspected shooter were brought to a local hospital.

The alleged gunman has been identified as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, an FSU student who is the son of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy, Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil said at the briefing. 

The suspect was taken into custody after being shot by police, officials said, adding that he invoked his right not to speak with police.

Investigators say the suspect used his mother’s former service weapon, now owned by her as a personal handgun, which was found at the scene. They said he was also armed with a shotgun. 

CBS News later learned that the sheriff’s deputy is the suspect’s stepmother, and that his birth parents had been engaged in a years-long custody dispute that began in 2007 and lasted until 2023. 

The sheriff’s deputy has been at the agency for more than 18 years and her service to the community has been exceptional, the sheriff said. “Unfortunately her son had access to one of her weapons,” Sheriff McNeil said. He also said that the alleged shooter was a longstanding member of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office citizen advisory or youth advisory council and engaged in a number of their training programs. He had “been steeped in the Leon County Sheriff Office’s family,” the sheriff said.  

Police said the two people killed in the shooting were not students. The victims’ names have not been released.

Tallahassee police said at about 3:15 p.m. ET that the campus has been secured, although multiple law enforcement agencies remain on site for the ongoing investigation. “Law enforcement has neutralized the threat,” FSU tweeted. The university said the student union and several other buildings on campus should be avoided “as they are still considered an active crime scene.”

Police responded to an active shooter call from the area of the student union around 12:01 p.m., FSU said. Police later said the shooter opened fire at about 11:50 a.m. The school sent an alert warning those on campus to “seek shelter and await further instructions.” The university also cautioned students to lock and stay away from all doors and windows.

The wounded are being treated at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Hospital, a hospital spokesperson confirmed to CBS News Miami. The hospital said all patients were in fair condition as of around 4:30 p.m. 

Ava Arenado, an FSU student who was in class when the university alert went out, described a terrifying scene.

“One of my classmates got an alert on her phone and announced it to the rest of the class,” Arenado told CBS News Miami. “My teacher immediately started barricading the door… and then another student said she’d rather go home, so we all just kind of ran to our cars.”

FSU student Blake Leonard told CBS News Miami he heard a total of about 30 shots fired. Leonard said he was about 400 feet from the student union when he heard gunfire and started running. 

“I heard about 12 shots go off. In my head I thought it was construction at first, until I looked behind me and saw people running from the union towards my direction, and then I heard another 12 or 15 shots go off, so I started running away from there too,” he said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted, “Our prayers are with our FSU family.”

The FBI and ATF said they had agents at the scene to assist local law enforcement. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump has been briefed on the shooting, and Mr. Trump made brief remarks about it Thursday afternoon.

“It’s a shame. It’s a horrible thing. Horrible thing. Things like this take place. And we’ll have more to say about it later,” Mr. Trump said.

Asked later if he would take a look at gun laws in light of the shooting, the president said, “Well, I’m going to have to look. I’m a big advocate of the Second Amendment. … These things are terrible. But the gun doesn’t do the shooting, the people do.”

The university said classes and all events were canceled through Friday, and sports events canceled through Sunday. 

Thursday’s incident was not the first time there was a shooting at the school. Three people were shot in the university’s library in 2014, before the gunman, a former student, was shot by police. 

So far in 2025, there have been 80 mass shootings in the U.S., including the most recent incident at Florida State University, according to the Gun Violence Archive. That’s a little more than five incidents per week. In all of 2024, there were 502 incidents, which is a little less than 10 incidents per week. 

The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an incident where four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.