Students stood in prayer circles and piled balloons, candles and teddy bears along a sidewalk Friday near Florida State University’s student union where two people were shot and killed and six others were wounded during a rampage lasting less five minutes.
The gunman, identified by police as the son of a sheriff’s deputy, had arrived on campus an hour before the shooting Thursday and stayed near a parking garage before he walked in and out of buildings and green spaces on campus, firing a handgun just before lunch time, police said Friday.
In roughly four minutes, officers confronted 20-year-old son Phoenix Ikner, a Florida State student, and shot and wounded him, Tallahassee police said.
Officials have not identified the two men who died, but family members said Robert Morales, a university dining coordinator, was one of them. He worked at Florida State since 2015 and studied criminology there in the early 1990s, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The other was Tiru Chabba, 45, a married father of two from Greenville, South Carolina, who was working for food service vendor Aramark, said Michael Wukela, a spokesperson for attorneys hired by the family.
Police have said five others were shot, and another person was hurt running away.
Medical staff at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare said they treated six people for gunshots and all were expected to survive.
They would not give any information about those people's identies or say whether the suspect was among them. Police said earlier that he was taken to a local hospital.
Some of the wounded were students, according to university President Richard McCullough.
On campus Friday, classes were canceled but some students returned to retrieve their backpacks and laptops left behind after they barricaded classroom doors and eventually fled to safety.
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“I don’t think any words can do it justice,” said Audrey Rothman, one of three members of the Florida State women’s volleyball team who brought flowers and held hands in a brief prayer circle.
Police believe Ikner used a former service weapon that belongs to his mother, an 18-year veteran of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, said Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil. In recent years, she has worked as a middle school resource officer and was the department’s employee of the month a year ago in March.
After the shooting, she requested and was granted personal leave and also reassigned from her post at the school, said Shonda Knight, executive director of community and media relations for the agency.
The gunman was a long-standing member of the Leon County Sheriff’s youth advisory council, police said. The group was created to build communication between young people and local law enforcement while also teaching the teens leadership and team-building skills.
Authorities have not yet revealed a motive.
The shooting erupted just a few hours before a forum on countering hate on campus was to take place in a classroom building next to the scene of the shooting.
The event titled “United Against Hate: Building a Safer Campus and Community Together” was part of a project honoring Maura Binkley, a Florida State student who was shot and killed in a mass shooting at a yoga studio in 2018.
On Friday, a few miles from the campus, the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church began its Good Friday service with prayers for the shooting victims and families.
The Rev. R.B. Holmes said he visited the victims at the hospital with Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey, who attended the service.
“We’re not going to emphasize the tragedy,” Holmes said. “We’re going to emphasize hope and healing. Our faith says we shall overcome. I said to the students we will be there for them.”
Associated Press reporters Stephany Matat in West Palm Beach, David Fischer in Fort Lauderdale, Michael Schneider in Orlando, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
