When a 20-year-old opened fire at Florida State University, terrified students barricaded doors and fled across campus, abandoning chemistry notes and even shoes, in a shooting that investigators said killed two men and wounded at least six others.
As dusk fell over Florida State University, a small memorial of candles and bouquets of flowers had been set up outside the student union, while investigators’ yellow tape blocked off the nearby doors.
By early Friday, memorials of candles and flowers dotted the campus and a school-wide vigil had been scheduled as students and faculty tried to start healing from the previous day's shooting, which sent shockwaves of fear across the campus.
“I heard some gunshots and then, you know, just blacked out after,” said Carolina Sena, a 21-year-old accounting student who was inside the student union when the shooting started. “Everyone was crying and just panicking. We were trying to barricade ourselves in a little corner in the basement, trying to protect ourselves as much as we could."
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The shooter, identified by police as Phoenix Ikner, is believed to be a Florida State student and the son of a sheriff’s deputy who opened fire with his mother’s former service weapon, investigators said. Authorities have not yet revealed a motive for the shooting, which began around lunchtime Thursday just outside the student union.
After receiving warnings of an active shooter, students and faculty took cover and waited in classrooms, offices and dorms across campus.
The first thing you think of is just, ‘This can’t be true,’ right?” said Kai McGalla, a sophomore who spoke by phone while locked down at a campus testing center.
Junior Joshua Sirmans, 20, was in the main library when alarms went off. Law enforcement officers escorted him and other students from the library with their hands over their heads, he said.
Officers quickly arrived and shot and wounded the gunman after he refused to comply with commands, said Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell.
Holden Mendez, a 20-year-old student studying political science and international affairs, said he had just left the student union when he heard a series of shots. He ran into a nearby campus building, where he said his previous emergency response training kicked in.
“There was a lot of fear. There was a lot of panic. There was a lot of misinformation that was being spread around. I was doing my best to kind of combat that," he said. “I told people, ‘Take a deep breath. This building is secure. Everything is going to be ok.'"
Andres Perez, 20, was in a classroom near the student union when the alarm sounded for a lockdown. He said his classmates began moving desks in front of the door and police officers came to escort them out.
“I always hang out in the student union,” Perez said. “So the second I found out that the threat was there, my heart sank and I was scared.”
Ryan Cedergren, a 21-year-old communications student, said he and about 30 others hid in the bowling alley in the union's lower level after seeing students running from a nearby bar.
“In that moment, it was survival,” he said.
Chris Pento said he and his twins were getting lunch at the student union during a campus tour when they heard gunshots. “It was surreal. And people just started running,” he told WCTV in Tallahassee.
They crammed into a service elevator after encountering locked doors at the end of a hallway. “That was probably the scariest point because we didn’t know. It could get worse, right?” he said. “The doors opened and two officers were there, guns drawn.”
Dozens of patrol vehicles, including a forensics van, were parked outside the student union hours after the shooting. Officers blocked off the area with crime scene tape.
Students and staff who left behind phones, keys and other items in the rush to evacuate waited in the shade and prayed for the victims.
