The 20-year-old man suspected of killing two people and wounding six others in a shooting at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla., on Thursday was identified by authorities as Phoenix Ikner, the stepson of a local sheriff’s deputy and student who classmates say had expressed far-right views.

Ikner was shot by police and taken into custody. He was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Phoenix Ikner’s stepmother was identified as Jessica Ikner, a Leon County sheriff’s deputy who has worked with the department for over 18 years. A former service weapon that belonged to her was recovered at the scene. She was allowed to purchase her former service weapon for personal use, officials said.

“Her service to this community has been exceptional,” Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil told reporters Thursday.

McNeil said Phoenix Ikner was a long-standing member of the sheriff’s youth advisory council who engaged in numerous training programs and was “steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family.”

“So it’s not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons,” McNeil said.

Tumultuous childhood

Phoenix Ikner. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photo: Instagram)

According to court documents obtained by ABC News, the alleged gunman’s biological mother, Anne-Mari Eriksen, was arrested in 2015 on a kidnapping charge for taking him to Norway when he was 10 years old.

Per ABC, Phoenix Ikner is referred to in court documents as Christian Gunnar Eriksen. He changed his name to Phoenix Ikner in 2020.

According to an affidavit for Eriksen’s arrest, she told his biological father that she would take him to South Florida for spring break in March 2015. Instead, she “fled the country with him in violation of their custody agreement,” taking him to Norway, per the affidavit.

Eriksen was arrested in July 2015 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and booked in the Leon County Jail on charges of kidnapping a minor child and removing them from the state. She pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 200 days in prison, 170 of which she had already served, followed by two years of “community control” and two more years of probation.

In October 2015, Eriksen filed a lawsuit alleging slander and libel against her son’s father, his stepmother Jessica Ikner and two other relatives.

“The emotional and psychological harm done to the minor child will be evident for years,” the lawsuit said. The suit was later dismissed.

History of far-right views

The FSU student union building is seen behind a law enforcement vehicle on Thursday. (Gary McCullough/AP)

Reid Seybold, a senior at FSU, told CNN that he knew the suspected shooter from a political discussion group at nearby Tallahassee State College. Seybold said that Ikner was asked to leave the group because he continually made people “uncomfortable” by espousing white supremacist rhetoric.

“He had continually made enough people uncomfortable where certain people had stopped coming,” Seybold said. “He talked about the ravages of multiculturalism and communism and how it’s ruining America.”

Another former classmate, Lucas Luzietti, told USA Today that he frequently got into arguments in class with Ikner, who he said routinely expressed hateful ideology.

“I remember thinking this man should not have access to firearms,” Luzietti said.

Ikner is a registered Republican, according to Florida voter registration records.

In January, he was quoted in FSU’s student newspaper in a story about protests ahead of President Trump’s inauguration.

“These people are usually pretty entertaining, usually not for good reasons,” said Ikner, who was described as a political science major by the paper. “I think it’s a little too late, he’s already going to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 and there’s not really much you can do unless you outright revolt, and I don’t think anyone wants that.”

An Instagram account appearing to belong to Ikner was taken offline shortly after police identified him as the suspect.

His bio included a biblical quote that read: “You are my war club, my weapon for battle; with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.”

A map shows the location of Florida State University within the city of Tallahassee.