Tallahassee, Fla. (AP) – When I was 20 years old I fired At Florida State University, a horrific student barricaded the doors, fled across campus, abandoned chemistry notes and shoes, and said investigators killed two men and injured at least six people in the shooting.
By the beginning of Friday, candles and flower memorials were scattered across the campus, with school-wide all-nighters scheduled as students and faculty tried to start healing from the previous day’s shooting.
“I heard the gunshot, and then it just turned black,” said Carolina Senna, a 21-year-old accounting student who was inside the student union when the shooting began. “Everyone was crying, just panic. We were trying to barricade ourselves in a small corner underground.
The shooter, identified by police as Phoenix Echner, is believed to be a Florida student and the son of a sheriff’s aide who fired his mother’s former service weapon, investigators said. Authorities have not yet revealed their motives shootingIt started at lunch on Thursday, just outside the Student Union.
Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Rebel quickly arrived and shot and killed the gunman after officers refused to comply with the orders.
The two men killed were not students, Florida State University Police Chief Jason Trambower added that he would not release any additional information about the victim.
The shooter has been in the sheriff’s office for over 18 years and gained access to a weapon belonging to his mother, a model employee, Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeill said. Police say they believe Ichner used his mother’s previous service handgun to shoot the victim.
Five injured people were shot, but the sixth was injured while trying to escape, Rebel said in a statement Thursday night. They were all in fair condition, a spokesman for Memorial Healthcare in Tallahassee.
The sheriff said the shooter was a longtime member of the Sheriff’s Office Youth Advisory Committee.
“He was immersed in the family at the Leon County Sheriff’s Office and was involved in many of the training programs we have,” McNeill said. “So it’s no surprise to us that he has access to weapons.”
As of Thursday night, Ichner was in the hospital with “serious but non-life-threatening injuries.”
Witness says the suspect’s shotgun was jammed
After the university issued an active shooter alert, ambulances, fire trucks and patrol vehicles from multiple law enforcement ran towards the campus just west of the Florida capital.
Aidan Stickney, a 21-year-old studying manager, was running late to class when he saw him out of the car with a shotgun and targeting another man in a white polo shirt.
The gun was choked, Stickney said, and the shooter rushed back to his car and showed up with a handgun, setting the woman on fire. Stickney ran and warned others that it was called 911.
“I’m lucky today. I really did it. I really, really, really did it,” he said.
Trambower said investigators had no evidence that anyone was shot with a shotgun.
The shot sent scattered students
Holden Mendes, a 20-year-old student studying political science and international affairs, said he just left the student union when he heard a series of shots. He encountered a building on a nearby campus where he said his previous emergency response training had begun.
“There was a lot of fear. There was a lot of panic. There was a lot of misinformation. I was trying my best to fight it,” he said. “I told people, ‘Take a deep breath. This building is safe. Everything will be fine.”
Andres Perez, 20, was in a classroom near the Student Union when the alarm went off due to lockdown. He says his classmates started moving desks in front of the door and the police officers came to escort them.
“I’m always hanging out with the Student Union,” Perez said. “So, I knew the threat was there, and my heart was sunk and scared.”
Shooting shocks campus and nation
President Donald Trump said he received a full explanation of the shooting from his oval office.
“It’s scary, and it’s scary when something like this happens,” he said.
But Trump also suggested he would not defend the new gun laws, saying, “guns don’t shoot, people do.”
The president of Richard McCullough University said he was heartbroken by the violence. “Our hearts are directed at students and victims of this horrific tragedy,” he said.
Another gunshot in Florida 10 years ago
Florida is one of Florida’s 12 public universities and has its main campus in Tallahassee. The university has approximately 44,000 students enrolled in accordance with the school’s 2024 fact sheet.
In 2014, the main library was Three injured shootings. Officers shot and killed 31-year-old Myron May.
The university cancelled classes for the rest of the week and canceled home athletic events until Sunday.
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Fisher reported from Fort Lauderdale. Associated Press reporter Stephanie Mattatt in West Palm Beach, Kurt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Michael Schneider in Orlando, Mike Balsamo in New York, Eric Tucker and Christopher Megarian in Washington, John Seawor in Toledo, Ohio, and Harry Golden in Seattle contributed to the report.
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