Tallahassee, Florida (AP) – In the midst of abandoned chemistry notes and other debris left after a Mortelely Filles at Florida State University are persistent questions about how the stepson of an assistant to a beloved sheriff responsible for school security in a college has become the accused shooter.
Political science students, Phoenix Ikner, was a long -standing member of the youth advisory advice from the Sheriff office and was imbued with the agency’s family culture. When the police rushed to the University Student Syndicate on reports of shots, the authorities say that it was the 20-year-old who used the former service weapon of his mother-in-law to open fire, Kill two men And hurt six others.
As People fled in terrorIkner was shot down and placed in police custody. He invoked his right not to speak to investigators, and his reason remains unknown because he is in a hospital bed.
The prosecutor’s office weighs the possible loads while stories emerge on a darker side. A classmate recalled that he had been expelled from a student club for comments that other members found disturbing.
“It’s horrible,” said Jimmy Williams, Leon County School Security Head, about the shooting. “It’s a horrible and horrible event.”
Williams, who knows Ikner’s mother-in-law, Jessica Ikner, for a decade, said that allegations have stressed that “none of us is immune to tragedy”.
Classes and commercial operations will resume on Monday, announced the Florida State during the weekend.
“I know that will not look like a normal week,” said FSU president Richard McCullough, in a message to students and employees on Saturday. “This is the last before the final, and many of you always treat what has happened. Please take care of yourself. “
The suspect is the stepson of a beloved assistant
Her mother-in-law, whose Alma Mater is the Florida State, was reassigned to her position as school resources manager on Friday and granted the personal leave she asked for, a spokesperson for the Sheriff Bureau at the Associated Press.
When the alert came out of an active shooter at Florida State University, Jessica Ikner was on duty at around 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) in Raa Middle School. A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office said that Jessica Ikner had worked to secure the campus to prevent anyone from entering while Raa had passed into “lockout mode”, as well as all the public schools of the county. She was practiced in this work.
Last year, she was appointed “employee of the month” by the Sheriff office, where she has been working for 18 years.
The police said they believed that Phoenix Ikner had shot down the victims using the former handgun of her mother-in-law, whom she had kept for personal use after the Force improved her weapons.
The sheriff of the county of Leon, Walter McNeil, described Phoenix Ikner Thursday as having been “imbued with the family of the Sheriff of the county of Leon and engaged in a certain number of training programs at the Sheriff’s office, adding that it was not a surprise that he would have access to firearms.
There was no file that he had a criminal record. And in Florida, the training and an audit verification are not necessary to carry hidden firearms in public.
Disputes of the custody and name change in his childhood
When Ikner was a child, his parents were involved in several guard disputes with his biological mother, according to the judicial archives.
In 2015, at the age of 10, her biological mother, Anne-Mari Eriksen, said that she was taking her to southern Florida for the spring holidays in 2015, but rather went to Norway. After her return to the United States, she did not argue any competitions to withdraw a state minor against a court order and was sentenced to 200 days in prison. Later, she moved to leave her plea, but it was refused.
In the fall of the same year, Eriksen filed a Libel-Slander civil complaint against Jessica Ikner, as well as several other family members. The complaint, which was then rejected, accused them of harassing Eriksen and mistreating Ikner’s position in the sheriff’s office.
In 2020, at the age of 15, the suspect received the approval of the court to change his name from Christian Eriksen to Phoenix Ikner, according to court documents. His former name was a constant reminder of a “tragedy” which he suffered, in the words of the administrative magistrate James Banks, who approved the request, reported NBC News.
Banks observed that Ikner was a “mentally, emotionally and physically mature young adult who is very articulated” and “very polite” said that he had chosen the new name as a representation of “raising ashes again”.
Classmate says there were concerns about the accused shooter
Reid Seybold and his classmates worked on a group project in a building located a short step three minutes from the student union when someone ran and warned them against the gunshots. They huddled together, said the 22 -year -old, frantically pulling what they thought they were their latest text messages to dear beings.
When Seybold discovered who was the suspect of the shooting – that he was someone he knows – he was overwhelmed with anger. Seybold was the president of a club that Phoenix Ikner joined when they were both studying at local community college, now called Tallahassee State College.
“He would complain quite regularly, especially when the conversations of police brutality arise,” said Seybold.
Seybold said Ikner was known for marrying the opinions of racist and white supremacists who alienated the other members so much that the club asked him to leave the group.
“He has made people uncomfortable,” said Seybold, who is now studying political science in the state of Florida. “I personally know that he complained about how multiculturalism and communism ruin America.”
‘Pathway to violence’
A key element of the investigation will probably focus on what could have led to the experts calling for the “way of violence,” said Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, a Cleveland consulting company.
“The question is, what was the motivation, what was the grievance?” Said Trump, who wrote the book “Practical School Security: Basic Guidelines for Sain and Secure Schools.” (It is not linked to the American president).
“Usually they accumulate over time thanks to a certain type of grievance against people,” said Trump. “The questions in the coming days are: were there warning signs, what were these warning signs, and if they were there, who knew?”
The accused shooter was transferred to Florida State college
Ikner was transferred to the state of Florida after obtaining a diploma as a partner in the community college, said school officials.
He did not draw the attention of the school newspaper, except to comment on a history of the FSU on a gathering on the campus against President Donald Trump.
Ikner, a recorded republican, described demonstrators as “entertaining” because Trump was already inaugurated. The comments have since been removed from history, a Publisher’s note To say that this decision was “to avoid amplifying the voice of an individual responsible for violence”.
Before Ikner Instagram was removed, his biography cited a verse from the book of the Old Testament of Jérémie. “You are my ax of battle and my weapons of war: for with you, I will break the nations in pieces, and with you, I will destroy the kingdoms”, reads Jeremiah 51:20, which the scholars interpreted as the judgment of God on Babylon. The Empire is a symbol in the Bible of sin and immorality.
The member’s family has remained silent for the moment
A patrol car from the Tallahassee police department was posted Thursday evening near the street where the family lives, preventing journalists from approaching the family’s home in a well -maintained suburban district on the east side of the city.
Telephone messages left for Jessica Ikner to a number listed for her on a school resource website and another phone connected to her via public archives was not immediately returned on Friday. And a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office said that she was not aware of the family to publish a declaration or to have a family spokesperson.
The only overview comes from past statements. Almost a decade ago, Jessica Ikner wrote a story published on the Tallahassee Family Magazine website on children’s safety while surfing the Internet, including advice to strengthen family obligations.
“Build a relationship of trust with your child,” she wrote. “Let them know that if they make a mistake, they can always come to you about anything.”
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Hollingsworth reported Mission, Kansas. The writers of the Associated Press Curt Anderson in Tallahassee, David Fischer and Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Stephany Matat in West Palm Beach, Michael Schneider in Orlando, Mike Balsamo in New York, Eric Tucker and Christopher Megerian in Washington, John Seewer in Toledo, Martin in Atlata contributed.
