A student who witnessed Thursday’s deadly shooting at Florida State University (FSU) recounted how the gunman fired “shot after shot” as chaos unfolded on campus, adding that she “can’t stop thinking about” a woman she saw get struck by gunfire.
The Context
Law enforcement officials identified Phoenix Ikner as the suspect in Thursday’s shooting at FSU, which left at least two people dead and seven injured, including the suspect. Officials have not yet released the identities of the victims.
Officials said Ikner’s mother, Jessica, is a deputy in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) and has served in the office for 18 years.
What To Know
McKenzie Heeter, a junior at FSU, recalled witnessing the shooting in a CNN interview, particularly when she saw the gunman shoot a woman in the back.
“You saw the shooter, you saw him open fire,” host Kate Bolduan said to Heeter. “Can you walk me through what happened and what you saw?”
Heeter said she was leaving the Student Union on campus when she saw the suspect in a “really nice orange Hummer.”
“And I look back and I see him waving around a larger gun, which I first thought was a rifle, but I guess it was a shotgun,” Heeter said. “And he let off a shot, kind of in our direction as we were walking away from the union.”
Heeter went on to say that she and the boy she was with “just kind of looked at each other, like, is this real?”
Kate Payne/AP
She said the suspect then turned to his car, grabbed another gun and “turned towards the union. And that’s when I saw him shoot a woman in purple scrubs in the back, in her back.”
“And I just started running,” Heeter said, turning emotional. “I ran a mile all the way to my apartment, but I kept hearing shots firing … pretty much … the cops were there before I even made it home, but it was a good 20 seconds as I was running that was just shot after shot after shot.”
Bolduan then asked Heeter if it appeared as if the suspect was “targeting” the woman who was shot in the back.
“No,” Heeter said, going on to say that at first, she thought the shooter was using a BB gun or playing the game “assassin” with a friend.
But “when he turned to the woman and shot her, that’s when I realized there was no target and that it was anybody he could see,” Heeter said. “And I took off.”
“Did the woman even know that she was in danger, do you think?” Bolduan asked.
Heeter replied: “She was shot in her back. She was just walking and he just turned around and shot her.”
She later said the assailant looked “quite calm” and wasn’t “panicky or manic or anything,” though he was “wearing a scowl.”
“He looked pretty normal,” Heeter said.
Bolduan wrapped the interview by asking Heeter how she was feeling in the wake of the shooting.
“I really just want to find out about the woman in the purple scrubs and if she’s OK. And I just want … I don’t know, I want everybody to know what happened,” Heeter said.
“But really, I just can’t stop thinking about the woman because I know she wasn’t a student and she was wearing scrubs,” she added.
What People Are Saying
Heeter told Bolduan on Thursday: “It still honestly hasn’t really settled that it was real, that those guns were real and people died. Everybody’s just really scared.”
President Donald Trump reacted to the shooting during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday: “It’s a horrible thing. It’s horrible that things like this take place.”
Trump added that he had been “fully briefed” and would have more to say later.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wrote on X as the shooting was unfolding: “Our prayers are with our FSU family and state law enforcement is actively responding.”
Leon County Sheriff Walter A. McNeil said at a news conference Thursday: “Our deputy, Deputy Ikner, has been with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office for over 18 years … her service to this community has been exceptional.
He added: “Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons and that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene.”
What Happens Next
Law enforcement officials say they’re still investigating a potential motive for the shooting, as well as whether the suspect had access to other weapons owned by his mother.
