Two people were killed and six others wounded when a gunman opened fire near the student union at Florida State University in Tallahassee, sending the campus into lockdown and students into hiding around lunchtime. Police officers shot and wounded the suspect after he refused commands, authorities said.
Investigators identified the suspect as Phoenix Ikner, 20, whom they believed to be a Florida State student. Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said officers arrived quickly, challenged him and opened fire when he did not comply. Revell said he did not believe the suspect fired at officers. The suspect remained in hospital that night with serious injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
The two men who died were not students, Florida State University Police Chief Jason Trumbower said. Officials did not immediately release further information about them. Of the six other people hurt, five were struck by gunfire and one was injured while fleeing, according to a police statement reported by AP. Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said all six were in fair condition later Thursday; NBC reported that the hospital had earlier described one patient as critical.
Authorities said the gunman used a former service handgun belonging to his mother, a Leon County sheriff's deputy who had worked for the office for more than 18 years. Sheriff Walt McNeil described her as a model employee and said she had kept the weapon for personal use after the agency changed its service firearms. He said her son had long participated in the sheriff's office youth advisory council and training programmes.
A witness told AP that he saw a man emerge from a car with a shotgun before returning to the vehicle and coming back with a handgun. Police said they found no evidence that anyone had been shot with the shotgun. That witness account and the investigators' preliminary assessment left the handgun as the weapon tied by authorities to the casualties.
The shooting began outside the student union, where students and families sought cover. AP reported that some hid in a bowling alley and a freight elevator. One student said about 30 people sheltered in the union's lower-level bowling area after seeing others run from a nearby bar. NBC described students and staff barricading classrooms with furniture as the university instructed the campus to shelter in place.
Emergency vehicles from several agencies converged on the university, which is located just west of Florida's state capital. Police treated the area around the student union as multiple crime scenes, while the FBI asked people nearby to submit photographs, video and other information through a tip website. Revell described the investigation as open and active.
No motive had been established in the immediate aftermath, AP reported. NBC interviewed people who had encountered Ikner in a political discussion club and relayed their descriptions of his views and conduct. Those personal accounts did not establish why the shooting happened, and investigators had not publicly connected a political ideology to the attack in the supplied evidence.
Florida State President Richard McCullough visited injured students and praised campus police for a response he said prevented a larger tragedy. In a message to students, faculty and staff, he called the shooting a senseless act of violence and said the university was grieving with the victims' families and supporting those who were hurt or shaken.
Students described the confusion of alarms and gunfire in a familiar campus space. One junior studying in the library told AP he initially panicked after hearing the active-shooter alert. Another student told NBC that his group heard a series of shots from the student union and quickly realised the noise signalled a serious attack.
By Thursday night, the immediate threat had ended, but the campus remained a scene of investigation and mourning. Flowers appeared at an improvised memorial near the student union, and a service was held at a cathedral across from a university entrance. The available reporting established the initial casualty count and police response, while leaving the motive and further legal proceedings unresolved.
