The son of a Florida sheriff’s deputy suspected to be the gunman in an attack at Florida State University that killed two and injured six had a history of espousing radical conspiracy theories, according to people who knew him. 

Leon County Sheriff Walter A. McNeil identified the alleged gunman as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, a student at Florida State University whose mother is a veteran Leon County sheriff deputy. McNeil said Ikner used a gun that belonged to his mother. 

The suspected gunman opened fire near the university’s student union at approximately 11:50 a.m., striking multiple people and sending students fleeing for cover, said Florida State University Police Chief Jason Trumbower. Campus police responded immediately and “neutralized and apprehended” the suspect, Trumbower said. He was injured and was taken to a local hospital.

News that Ikner was the suspected gunman horrified people who knew him, but they said they weren’t shocked given things he had said publicly.

“I got into arguments with him in class over how gross the things he said were,” Lucas Luzietti, a politics student who shared a class with Ikner, told USA TODAY.

In 2023, the two took a course in federal politics, where they regularly clashed.

According to the Florida native, Ikner touted right wing conspiracy theories and hateful ideas. Among them was a theory that President Joe Biden illegally came into office, “Rosa Parks was in the wrong” and Black people were ruining his neighborhood. 

“I remember thinking this man should not have access to firearms,” Luzietti told USA TODAY. But, “what are you supposed to do? His mother was a cop and Florida doesn’t have very strong red flag laws.”

Red flag laws allow people concerned over someone in crisis to petition a court to remove their access to guns.

Ikner made it clear to the class that he had guns, the Tallahassee State College student said.

Few students, if any, were close to Ikner, although he spoke with the professor regularly after class, Luzietti told USA TODAY. 

“It’s so sad and so shocking,” Luzietti said of the shooting. “Then to see that it was him — I’m sadly not surprised.”

‘Steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family’

Ikner was vocal in class and participated in the community in other ways, namely as a “longstanding member” of the sheriff office’s youth advisory council, according to McNeil.

The history of youth advisory councils for law enforcement goes back decades. Teen and young adult-led groups were created around the country in an effort to develop a better rapport between local police and young people in the community.

Typically, young people who join the councils are regarded as potential future community leaders or public servants. 

Ikner was a student at Lincoln High School when the sheriff’s office announced he was one of eight students to join the council. Lincoln touts itself as one of the top 100 public high schools in the nation.

Ikner was a familiar face at the sheriff’s office. 

“He has been steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family, engaged in a number of training programs, so it’s not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons,” McNeil said. “This event is tragic in more ways than you people in the audience could ever [fathom] from a law enforcement perspective.”

McNeil said Ikner used a weapon that belonged to his mother, a member of the county sheriff’s office for 18 years.

“Her service to this community has been exceptional,” McNeil told reporters Thursday. “Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons and that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene.”

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Ikner at Florida State

Ikner and Luzietti studied politics together at Tallahassee Community College and after moving to Florida State, Ikner continued his study of the subject, according to FSU News, a university outlet that’s part of the USA TODAY Network.

The student paper quoted Ikner’s reaction to a protest held before President Donald Trump’s inauguration over the Republican leader’s anticipated agenda.

“These people are usually pretty entertaining, usually not for good reasons,” Ikner said then. “I think it’s a little too late, he’s [Trump] 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.”

Reid Seybold, a former Tallahassee State College student who transferred to Florida State at the same time as Ikner, recalled how they crossed paths at their old school, according to NBC News.

Seybold said they belonged to a “political round table” club where the group eventually asked Ikner to leave over the hateful things he said.

“Basically our only rule was no Nazis — colloquially speaking — and he espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric, and far-right rhetoric as well, to the point where we had to exercise that rule,” Seybold said.