Guns, extreme views and chaotic childhood shaped suspect in Florida state shooting

Tallahassee: The 20-year-old student accused of killing two people and wounding six others at Florida State University had expressed extremist political views that made classmates uncomfortable, talked about his interest in guns and experienced years of family tumult that culminated in his changing his name in high school.

The day after the shooting terrorized Florida State students, forcing them to flee or hide from gunfire at the university's campus in Tallahassee, interviews and extensive court records offered an early portrait of the suspect, though law enforcement officials remained silent on what might have motivated the attack.

By the time the suspect, Phoenix Ikner, was 6 years old, court records showed that he had to repeat kindergarten. His parents fought bitterly over every aspect of his care while accusing each other of manipulation and abuse. Judges were forced to intervene again and again as the parents traded allegations of domestic violence and stalking. The legal battle consumed nearly his entire childhood and ended only when he became an adult and most of the family court matters became moot.

"All I wanted for him was a loving environment," his biological mother, Anne-Mari Eriksen, said Friday in a brief interview, in which she was clearly upset. "I was always concerned about his mental health and happiness."

She said she remained bewildered by the shooting and had been against the presence of firearms in her son's life. "I feel bad for the people at FSU," she said. "My heart goes out to them. My heart is also with my son."

Chief Lawrence E. Revell of the Tallahassee Police Department said in a video statement that the suspect, a Florida State student, appeared to have no direct connection to his victims. The chief added that the suspect would face charges up to and including first-degree murder.

Students and community members reeled from the shock and loss, holding a vigil Friday and preparing for more memorials.

Robert Morales, a dining coordinator at Florida State, was identified as one of the dead by his brother, Ricardo Morales Jr., who wrote on social media that he "loved his job at FSU and his beautiful wife and daughter." Morales had previously served as an assistant football coach at Leon High School in Tallahassee, according to the school's athletic department.

The second victim killed was identified as Tiru Chabba by a law firm that his family has retained. Chabba, 45, was a father of two children. He lived in Greenville, South Carolina, and was on campus Thursday as an employee of a campus vendor when the shooting took place.

All six of the wounded victims, which included at least some students, were expected to make a full recovery, the hospital that treated them said. Two were on track to be discharged as early as Friday.

Many questions surrounded the suspect, who was wounded by police officers and arrested. His injuries were "significant," Revell said Friday, adding that treating them would take some time and that the suspect would then be transferred to a detention facility.

On Thursday, Sheriff Walter McNeil of Leon County said that the suspect's mother was one of his deputies. McNeil said the handgun that the suspect used had belonged to the mother and was her former service weapon, which she had purchased for personal use.

Court records show that the deputy is actually the suspect's stepmother. She married his father in 2010. The deputy was granted personal leave after the shooting, and she has been reassigned from her role as a school resource officer to the property crimes unit, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office said Friday.

The suspect's father and biological mother had been in highly contentious litigation since he was 2, fighting over custody, child support and their son's health care and schooling. Records said that he had "developmental delays and special needs" and was taking medication "for several health and mental issues, to include growth hormone disorder and ADHD."

Neither the suspect's father nor his stepmother could be reached for comment Friday. Other relatives declined to comment. It was unclear if the suspect had retained a lawyer.

Court records listed the suspect's name as Christian Gunnar Eriksen until 2019, when he was 15 and his father petitioned the court on his behalf to change his name to Phoenix Ikner. The judge granted the request in 2020, noting that the teenager, who was then in 10th grade, was on the honor roll and in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. The judge found him to be "very articulate, quite intelligent, very well spoken and very polite."

According to the records, the teenager wanted to change his name in part because of a "tragic event" in 2015. The records say that episode took him several years and some therapy to process.

In 2015, when he was 10, his biological mother said she was going to travel with him to South Florida for spring break. Instead, she took him to Norway, where she and her son hold dual citizenship. A Norwegian court ordered the son be returned to Tallahassee after several months. Full custody was awarded to his father.

His mother pleaded no contest to a charge of failure to return a child and was sentenced to 200 days in jail and two years of probation. She was ordered to have no contact with her son, a stipulation that she fought after completing her sentence, according to Fred Pearson, her lawyer at the time.

The suspect's mother and father had traded domestic violence accusations in court before the 2015 incident.

Before attending Florida State, the suspect attended Tallahassee Community College, now known as Tallahassee State College, where two former classmates said he shared far-right political views that they found troubling. The suspect was a registered Republican who regularly voted in elections, county records show.

Reid Seybold, 22, a senior at Florida State, said the suspect joined a political discourse club that Seybold ran at Tallahassee State. The suspect's time in the club was short-lived.

"He repeatedly espoused white supremacist, alt-right views to the point where people were uncomfortable, and we had to ask him to leave," Seybold said, adding that the discussions often became "Phoenix against just about everyone else," with the suspect escalating arguments and seeming to thrive on the opposition.

"He said Rosa Parks was in the wrong," said Lucas Luzietti, 20, who was in a national government class with the suspect at Tallahassee State in the spring of 2023. "He strongly implied that Black people were ruining his neighborhood. He also said Joe Biden was an illegitimate president."

"Everyone in the class would look at each other, like, 'Did he really just say that?'" Luzietti added.

Seybold and Luzietti said in separate interviews that the suspect also talked about guns, saying that he liked them, had access to them and had used them.

On Thursday, according to the Tallahassee Police Department, the suspect arrived on campus nearly an hour before the attack. He parked his car and moved "in and out of the vehicle" before leaving the parking garage at 11:51 a.m.

The first shot was fired at 11:56 a.m. The suspect entered and exited buildings and walked around green spaces, firing the handgun.

McKenzie Heeter, 20, a student who was grabbing lunch at Panda Express, said she heard a gunshot and then saw the gunman about 50 feet away from her. He missed shooting at a boy next to her. She then saw him shoot a woman in purple scrubs, she said.

The police responded and shot the gunman. It was noon. The attack was over in less than five minutes.