A man used his police officer mother’s gun to kill two people at Florida State University on Thursday, police have said.
A further six have been taken to hospital with injuries.
Police shot and wounded the gunman, who they identified as Phoenix Ikner (20), after he refused to comply with commands from officers.
Florida State University police chief Jason Trumbower said the gunman shot at individuals around the student union building.
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He is believed to be a Florida State student.
Mr Trumbower said the two people who were killed were not students at the university.
The injured were all in fair condition, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said in a Facebook post.
Leon County sheriff Walter McNeil revealed the alleged gunman’s identity and his relation to deputy Jessica Ikner, who has been with the sheriff’s office for more than 18 years.
Mr McNeil says the alleged gunman was a long-standing member of the sheriff’s office’s youth advisory council and engaged in a number of training programmes with the office.
Ikner was in the hospital with “serious but non-life-threatening injuries”, police said.
Asked about the shooting, US president Donald Trump said “it’s a shame”, adding that he knew the school and the area “very well”.
But Mr Trump suggested that he would not be advocating for any new gun legislation, saying: “The gun doesn’t do the shooting, the people do”.
Florida State University cancelled classes on Friday, two weeks before the university’s scheduled commencement ceremony for graduates from May 2nd to 3rd.
Jake Nair, a senior student at the university, was studying in the library when a police officer dashed out of the building, yelling for everyone to stay in place.
“He ran outside with his gun out,” Mr Nair said. “Not all the students heard him, and some of them ran out the back of the library.”
Mr Nair said an alarm in the library then went off and a recorded message warned students to shelter in place because of an active shooter on campus.
About five officers came into the library and escorted the students out with their hands up.
“I think they just wanted to make sure none of us had a weapon on us,” Mr Nair said. “To be honest, it was a bit of a surreal moment. It’s the kind of thing you only see on the news.”
Ryan Cedergren (21), a communications student, said he and about 30 others hid in the bowling alley in the union’s lower level after seeing students running from a nearby bar.
“In that moment, it was survival,” he said.
As dusk fell over Florida State University, a small memorial of candles and bouquets of flowers had been set up outside the student union, while investigators’ yellow tape blocked off the nearby doors.
Florida State is one of the Sunshine State’s 12 public universities, with its main campus in Tallahassee. About 44,000 students are enrolled in the university, according to the school’s 2024 fact sheet.
In 2014, the main library was the site of a shooting that wounded three people. Officers shot and killed the gunman, Myron May (31). – AP
