Years earlier than he was named a suspect on this week’s deadly shooting at Florida State University, Phoenix Ikner had sought a brand new starting. Traumatized by a fancy custody battle between his mother and father that had resulted in prices in opposition to his mom when he was youthful, the then-teenager requested a Leon County, Florida, circuit courtroom for a authorized title change.
Ikner appeared at his courtroom listening to in 2020 by way of videoconference, wearing his naval junior ROTC uniform. An honors pupil in highschool on the time, he made a very good impression.
“This courtroom discovered him to be a mentally, emotionally, and bodily mature younger grownup, who could be very articulate, fairly clever, very properly spoken, and really well mannered,” wrote administrative Justice of the Peace James Banks in his approval of the authorized change from Ikner’s beginning title, which had been Christian Gunnar Eriksen.
Ikner selected to undertake his father’s surname and chosen a primary title brimming with symbolism.
“He selected the title Phoenix due to its illustration of rising from the ashes anew,” Banks wrote.
How Ikner went from a youngster with hopes for a recent begin to a 20-year-old accused of killing two individuals and injuring at the least 5 others in Thursday’s taking pictures in Tallahassee is a thriller. In interviews with classmates and critiques of authorized paperwork, a portrait of a younger man who struggled with a fractured household life and clashed with classmates over his excessive political opinions has emerged.
However a doable motive for the lethal violence shouldn’t be but recognized.
Ikner had simply transferred to Florida State College from Tallahassee State School and enrolled this semester as a political science main. He stays hospitalized with critical however non-life-threatening accidents after he was shot by regulation enforcement, police stated.
Because the investigation widened Friday into what led to the gunfire, college students who knew the accused gunman described him as a troubled younger man who brazenly talked about having a weapon.
“He would joke about mass violence,” stated Lucas Luzietti, who shared a nationwide authorities class with Ikner when he was at Tallahassee State School. “And he did discuss how he used weapons and had entry to them.”
Luzietti stated he as soon as argued with Ikner over the 2020 election and stated that their classmates would trade appears over Ikner’s feedback. That included Ikner denying the outcomes of the presidential election and sharing hateful feedback about minorities, he added.
“He espoused the election denialism perception that Joe Biden was not the reputable president, he stated that Rosa Parks was within the incorrect, he additionally talked about how Black individuals are ruining his neighborhood and Stonewell was unhealthy for society,” Luzietti stated. “He would additionally discuss how multiculturalism is harmful.”
Reid Seybold, a senior at FSU who stated he first met Ikner at Tallahassee State, recalled Ikner being requested to not return to a political dialogue membership at his former faculty due to “white supremacist rhetoric and far-right rhetoric.”
The membership’s present president, Riley Pusins, stated Ikner typically promoted white supremacist values, regardless that the group was nonpartisan and was about debate and political discourse. After the conferences, Ikner would make even worse remarks, Pusins stated.
NBC Information has confirmed the id of the victims who died in Thursday’s taking pictures: Robert Morales, 57, and Tiru Chabba, 45. FSU grad pupil Madison Askins was among the many injured; the identities of the opposite wounded victims haven’t but been launched.
Authorities stated Thursday they imagine Ikner used a handgun that belonged to his stepmother, Jessica Ikner, a Leon County sheriff’s deputy and a college useful resource officer at a Tallahassee center faculty.
Jessica Ikner and different relations couldn’t be reached for remark. Courtroom paperwork, nevertheless, element difficulties in Ikner’s upbringing, together with well being points and a battle for his custody that stretched abroad.
In 2015, Ikner’s organic mom, Anne-Mari Eriksen, took him overseas, violating her settlement with Ikner’s father, Christopher, in keeping with a possible trigger affidavit from the Leon County Sheriff’s Workplace seen by NBC Information. Eriksen had shared custody of her son, who was 10 or 11 years outdated and glided by his beginning title on the time, however she was required to present superior discover if she took Ikner out of the U.S. For spring break that yr, the affidavit stated, Eriksen had advised Christopher Ikner they have been touring to South Florida. As a substitute, she allegedly took their son to Norway, the place each she and him had twin citizenship.
A number of weeks after spring break ended, Eriksen nonetheless had not introduced the boy house to america and “had no intention of returning” him to Tallahassee, regardless of pleas from his father, the affidavit added.
When Eriksen didn’t deliver Ikner again, Christopher Ikner contacted authorities to report his son kidnapped and to report that he was being denied medical take care of developmental delays and particular wants he had been recognized with, which included consideration deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction and a development hormone dysfunction, the affidavit stated.
“By protecting Christian in Norway, the defendant didn’t have Christian in class for scheduled testing, canceled appointments with Christian’s docs within the U.S., and failed to take care of his medicine protocols by her personal admission,” it stated.
Later that yr, Eriksen filed a lawsuit in opposition to Christopher and Jessica Ikner plus two different relations within the Ikner household for allegedly slandering her and inflicting “psychological hurt” to their son by “steady and harsh litigation in household courtroom.” The Ikners couldn’t be reached for remark.
“Christian Gunnar Eriksen is the sufferer of psychological and emotional abuse, in addition to parental alienation. Christopher Ikner enjoys taking credit score for issues that Anne-Mari Eriksen has completed privately, professionally and father or mother smart,” the authorized grievance learn.
Eriksen, who couldn’t be reached for remark, was in the end charged with eradicating a minor from the state and failing to return a minor, information present. She pleaded no contest and served a short jail sentence.
When Phoenix Ikner petitioned to legally change his title from Christian Gunnar Eriksen in 2019, which the courtroom permitted the next yr, his mom objected to the title change, whereas his father supported it, papers present.
Banks, the executive Justice of the Peace who permitted the change, wrote: “He sees no cause to maintain his former title as it’s a fixed reminder of the 2015 tragedy he suffered by and of his mom who he has not seen or spoken to since 2015.”
Authorities say that at about 11 a.m. Thursday, Ikner arrived on the FSU parking storage, the place he stayed for near an hour earlier than strolling towards the coed union. He then allegedly stalked buildings and lawns, firing his handgun indiscriminately at individuals, police added.
Panicked college students fled for his or her lives and referred to as 911. Responding officers shot Ikner when he refused their instructions, police stated, with the rampage lasting lower than 5 minutes.
Following Thursday’s taking pictures, Ikner has invoked his proper to stay silent, police stated.
Seybold, who was locked down in a classroom and will hear gunfire close by, is anxious for solutions.
“I don’t know why he would have completed one thing like this,” Seybold stated. “I don’t know the place it could have come from, however I’d certain like to search out out.”
