FSU capturing newest: Suspected gunman is ‘white supremacist’ Trump supporter with tumultuous childhood | EUROtoday

By early Friday, memorials of candles and flowers dotted the Tallahassee campus and a school-wide vigil had been scheduled as college students and college.

We’re listening to extra from college students who have been on campus on the time of the capturing on Thursday lunchtime.

Carolina Sena, a 21-year-old accounting pupil, was inside the scholar union when the capturing began.

“I heard some gunshots and then, you know, just blacked out after,” she mentioned.

“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.”

Media shops this morning have reported how Leon Country court docket information present the capturing suspect, Phoenix Ikner, modified his identify from Christian Erikson after his organic mom was accused of taking him to Norway when he was 10 years previous.

Now it has emerged {that a} lady claiming to be Ikner’s mom posted concerning the capturing on a Facebook now-deleted publish within the hours after the incident, in line with MailOnline.

She additionally fumed over a authorized battle she had along with her son’s father, who’s believed to have raised Ikner.

She wrote: “Feel sorry for everyone at FSU and their kids.”

As we’ve reported, the named suspected in yesterday’s capturing, Phoenix Ikner, was a member of the Leon County Sheriff’s Youth Advisory Council.

The council supplies “an open line of communication” between younger folks and native regulation enforcement.

Kenniyah Houston, additionally a member of the youth council, reacted to information of the capturing in an interview with CNN.

She didn’t personally bear in mind Ikner. She mentioned the advisory council targeted on bettering the group and regulation enforcement.

She mentioned: “That’s what it was all about – making better decisions. For something like this to happen from someone in a group like that is scary … it’s devastating.”

The suspect within the capturing on the Tallahassee campus of Florida State University on Thursday was named by police as Phoenix Ikner.

The 20-year-old pupil is the son of a neighborhood sheriff’s deputy, authorities say, and was a member of the sheriff’s Youth Advisory Council.

On a now-deleted Instagram account with Ikner’s identify, {a photograph} of him was shared with the biblical quote: “You are my war club, my weapon for battle; with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.”

Ikner was wounded by police through the capturing on the campus. He is claimed to not be in a life-threatening situation as officers proceed to analyze what occurred.

As police proceed the investigation into the capturing on the Tallahassee campus of Florida State University, workers have introduced a vigil shall be held for the 2 male victims, who weren’t college students, on Friday.

The occasion will happen at 5pm at Langford Green – the identical location an analogous vigil was held after a capturing on the campus 11 years in the past.

All courses have been cancelled for the day. Late on Thursday, the college launched an announcement: “The student union and the surrounding area is still considered an active crime scene.

“The public and campus community should avoid the area. Students should not return to the student union to retrieve personal property at this time.

“Students may return to their residence halls but they should otherwise stay indoors on the main campus to allow law enforcement and university staff to do their jobs and respond to those needing assistance.”

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 in the Florida State University campus yesterday lunchtime.

He ran into a nearby campus building, where he said his previous emergency response training kicked in.

“There was a number of concern. There was a number of panic. There was a number of misinformation that was being unfold round. I used to be doing my finest to sort of fight that,” he mentioned.

“I instructed folks, ‘Take a deep breath. This constructing is safe. Everything goes to be okay.'”

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 at all times hand around in the scholar union,” Perez said. “So the second I came upon that the menace was there, my coronary heart sank and I used to be scared.”

Hours after the shooting on Thursday, police identified the suspected gunman as Phoenix Ikner.

Here, Joe Sommerlad shares what we know about the 20-year-old Florida State University student.

Mass shootings on U.S. school campuses have become recurring tragedies in recent years.

Thursday’s incident was the second shooting on the FSU campus in 11 years. In 2014, a graduate opened fire early at the school’s main library, wounding two students and an employee as hundreds were studying for exams.

Notable mass shootings at other colleges or universities in recent years include the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre in Blacksburg, Virginia, where 32 people were killed and 23 injured.

In 2023, there were two college mass shootings, one at Michigan State University, where three students were killed and at least five others injured.

The other incident unfolded at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where three faculty members were killed before a suspect died in a shootout with the police.

Following yesterday’s shooting at Florida State University’s Tallahassee campus, we’ve since been hearing from some of the students who were instructed to stay in shelter.

Emily Palmer, 21, was next to the student union when the shooting happened, she told CNN.

“I’m shaking … It’s just a lot going on,” Palmer said.

“I’m concerned about my friends. I have friends in class right who are getting evacuated by police with their hands up.”

Paula Maldonado Told ABC News she was in class when the threat alarm went off and the sounded of yelling broke out outside.

“Everyone in my class shortly turned off the lights, put desks to dam off the door and hid by the entrance of the classroom,” she mentioned.

“A cop got here inside and I believed it was the shooter, so it was very scary. But after a few minutes one other copy got here again in and instructed us to go outdoors with our arms up.”