Off The Record
First Victim Named in FSU Shooting — Community Mourns Beloved Dining Staff Member
One of the victims of the shooting on Thursday has been identified as a Florida State University dining room employee.
On the campus in Tallahassee, 20-year-old student Phoenix Ikner opened fire, killing Robert Morales.
Another victim, who has not yet been named, was also killed; according to police, neither of the murderers was an FSU student.
In a post to X, his older brother Ricardo said, “Today we lost my younger brother. He was one of the victims killed at FSU.”
“He loved his job at FSU and his beautiful Wife and Daughter. I’m glad you were in my Life.”
Morales had been a cafeteria coordinator at the university for more than nine years, according to his LinkedIn page.
In a statement, his employer Aramark said, “We are heartbroken to confirm that an Aramark employee was among those killed at FSU yesterday in that senseless act of violence.”
“We are absolutely shaken by the news and our deepest sympathies are with the family and our entire Aramark community.”
Later on Friday, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital anticipates the release of two of the six other injured individuals.
According to a spokeswoman, three other victims’ conditions are reportedly getting better, while one victim’s health is still “in fair condition.”
Moments after the lunchtime shootings, students were told to stay indoors while first responders flooded the campus as gunfire broke out and the school was closed down.
Ikner, a sheriff’s deputy’s son, used her gun during his outburst, killing two people and wounding six more.
Ikner was shot by police at the site and is presently being held in a hospital.
Shots rang out close to the student union, and witnesses described mayhem as people started to flee the expansive campus.
“Everyone just started running out of the student union,” a witness named Wayne told local news station WCTV.
“About a minute later, we heard about eight to 10 gunshots,” he said he saw one man who appeared to have been shot in the midsection.
He added, “The whole entire thing was just surreal. I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Everything was really quiet, then all chaotic.”
Ikner’s former classmates have since claimed that he ‘espoused far right language’ and carried ‘white supremacist’ views.
After the incident, a student who had previously participated in a “political round table” with Ikner told NBC that he had white nationalist beliefs.
“Basically our only rule was no Nazis — colloquially speaking — and he espoused so much white supremacist rhetoric and far right rhetoric as well,” Reid Seybold said.
The club’s president, Seybold, claimed that Ikner’s views and speech forced him to expel him from the group.
His mother is Leon County Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Ikner, according to officials, who also mentioned that he had access to one of her firearms, which was later discovered at the scene.
At a press conference on Thursday, Leon County Sheriff McNeil stated that the shooter was a part of the department’s youth setup and participated in training initiatives.
‘Steeped in the Leon County Sheriff’s Office family,’ Ikner was said.
Because deputies “are allowed to purchase the handgun they used prior,” Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell stated that although his mother had previously used the gun for law enforcement, it was her personal handgun at the time of the killing.
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