Suspected Shooter Of Florida State University Mass Shooting Is Identified as a ‘White Supremacist’

Phoenix Ikner, the 20-year-old suspect in the Florida State University shooting that left two dead and six injured, had previously expressed white supremacist views, according to former classmates. A student at Tallahassee State College, Ikner had been expelled from a campus political club for promoting extremist ideology. “He espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric, and far-right rhetoric as well, to the point where we had to exercise that rule,” Reid Seybold, a fellow student, told a local news outlet.

Authorities have not publicly confirmed a motive, but the emerging portrait of Ikner includes a troubling alignment with far-right ideology and personal instability. He had legally changed his name from Christian Eriksen to Phoenix Ikner and used the last name of his adoptive mother, Leon County Deputy Jessica Ikner. According to police, he used her former service weapon in the attack.

Further complicating the picture is a history of family upheaval. Court records reveal that when Ikner was just 10 years old, his biological mother was accused of illegally removing him from the United States. The details of that case remain unclear, but it adds to what appears to be a deeply fractured upbringing.

The shooting, which rocked the Florida State University community, remains under investigation, and officials have yet to release the names of the deceased or publicly identify a motive. Still, the statements from those who encountered Ikner before the attack raise serious concerns about the warning signs. His behavior reportedly led peers to distance themselves due to the extremity of his beliefs.

As of now, investigators have not commented on whether his ideological views played a direct role in the shooting, but the connection to white supremacist rhetoric has already alarmed many and prompted calls for deeper scrutiny into how early signs of extremist beliefs are addressed, especially within educational settings.

Link: The Independent