In the wake of the deadly shooting at Florida State University on Thursday, a portrait of the alleged gunman — the stepson of a local sheriff’s deputy — has emerged.
At least two people were killed and six others were injured when shots rang out near the Tallahassee institution’s Student Union, officials said during a press conference.
Leon County Sheriff has identified the shooter as 20-year-old Pheonix Ikner, shown in this photo posted to social media.
First responders shot the suspect on campus and he has since been hospitalized, officials said. He was taken into custody with non-life-threatening injuries, multiple law enforcement officials told ABC News.
The suspect was identified during the press conference as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner. At the press conference, authorities described Ikner as the son of Leon County Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Ikner. However, court documents indicate she is the suspect’s stepmother.
Law enforcement work at Florida State University campus after a mass shooting in Tallahassee, Fla., April 17, 2025.
Alicia Devine/USA Today Network via Imagn Images via Reuters
Sheriff Walter McNeil said Phoenix had access to one of his stepmother’s personal weapons, which was one of the weapons found at the scene. He had a handgun and a shotgun with him at the time of the shooting, officials said.
Jessica Ikner has been a deputy with the department for more than 18 years and “her service to this community has been exceptional,” McNeil said.
Florida State University campus shooting
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McNeil added that the 20-year-old suspect was also a “long-standing member” of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office’s Youth Advisory Council.
Pheonix had been “steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family,” McNeil said, adding, “It’s not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons,” he added.
Suspect was once at center of international child custody dispute
Ikner was previously at the center of a protracted battle between his parents that featured a custody dispute stretching from the Florida panhandle to Norway, according to court documents.
At the time of the custody dispute, the suspect was a child and was known as Christian Gunnar Eriksen. (He changed his name in 2020 and is now identified as Phoenix Ikner.)
Christian was taken by his biological mother to Norway in March 2015 in violation of a child custody order, according to a 2015 probable cause affidavit from the Leon County Sheriff’s Office. Anne-Mari Eriksen was accused of telling Christian’s father, Christopher Ikner, that she was taking him to South Florida for spring break.
“Instead of staying in South Florida, the defendant allegedly fled the country with him in violation of their custody agreement,” the affidavit says. “Mr. Ikner advised that Christian has developmental delays and has special needs which he feared would not be taken care of without access to his doctors here in the United States.”
The sheriff’s affidavit said the child was on medication for “several health and mental issues, to include a growth hormone disorder and ADHD.”
The document stated that Christian and his biological mother were dual citizens of the United States and Norway.
Christian was eventually brought back to the United States. His mother was arrested at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in July 2015 and later pleaded no contest to illegally removing a child from Florida.
In October 2015, Anne-Mari Eriksen filed a lawsuit alleging slander and libel on behalf of herself and her son against the father and Christian’s stepmother, sheriff’s deputy Jessica Ikner, along with two other relatives.
“The emotional and psychological harm done to the minor child will be evident for years, and will require counseling, and given the child being the age of 11, will have memory impacted by the behaviors of all the defendants for the false claims done on his mother, and for the parental alienation of the close relationship of the minor child,” the lawsuit claimed.
The lawsuit sought more than $80,000 in damages to use toward Christian’s college fund.
A judge dismissed the suit seven months later.
An investigation into the motive of the deadly shooting is ongoing.
Police said during the press conference that law enforcement’s response to the shooting was “massive” and “very quick.”
“We are working multiple crime scenes, and there are potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of witnesses,” Chief Lawrence Revell of the Tallahassee Police said.
Revell also said the suspect did not comply with commands before being shot by responding officers. “I do not believe he fired at officers,” Revell said.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky, Katherine Faulders and Jenny Wagnon Courts contributed to this report.
