A 20-year-old Florida State University student who authorities say opened fire on the school’s Tallahassee campus Thursday, killing two people and wounding six others, was at the center of a custody battle between his birth parents, CBS News has learned. And students who knew him are beginning to share more information about his background.
CBS News obtained court records showing a years-long custody battle between the birth parents of suspect Phoenix Ikner, who was shot by police and taken to a hospital following Thursday’s mass shooting.
Authorities told reporters the weapon used in Thursday’s shooting was a former service weapon belonging to the suspect’s stepmother, a Leon County Sheriff’s deputy, which she now owned as a personal handgun.
The suspect’s birth mother, Anne-Mari Eriksen, was in custody disputes with his father, Christopher Ikner, that began in 2007 and lasted through 2023, records show.
Two former schoolmates of the suspect told CBS News he used to go by Christian Eriksen.
In 2016, Anne-Mari Eriksen was found guilty of removing her child from the state and failing to return him, according to court records.
Public records show Christopher Ikner married Jessica Ikner in 2010, a Leon County Sheriff’s deputy.
Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil told reporters that Jessica Ikner has worked at the sheriff’s office for 18 years.
She was seen in a social media post smiling and receiving an award from McNeil. She worked as a school resource deputy, according to the LCSO website.
Records show Anne-Mari Erikson filed a lawsuit in 2015 against Christopher Ikner, Jessica Ikner, and other family members, alleging slander and libel, according to court records. The case was dismissed in 2016.
Students describe interactions with suspect
Florida State University student Reid Seybold, who knew the mass shooting suspect from a political club at a former college, told CBS News that the alleged gunman was asked to leave the group after espousing white supremacist rhetoric that “made enough people uncomfortable.” CBS News has not independently verified these claims. Seybold said the suspect seemed “fairly normal” when he saw him around campus afterward and said he won’t speculate on the motive behind Thursday’s deadly shooting.
Jennifer Jaskolski, 20, was in the same grade as the suspect at Swift Creek Middle School and Lincoln High School. She told CBS News the two of them rode the school bus together in 6th and 7th grade, before he switched to a special education transportation option in 8th grade.
He was in a combination of regular and special education classes, according to Jaskolski.
Jaskolski remembers Jessica Ikner picking him up from school while wearing her sheriff’s deputy uniform.
Jaskolski’s friend, Gemma Garcia, attended middle school with the suspect.
Garcia, 19, was in the grade below the suspect at Swift Creek Middle School and shared a yearbook photo of him from 2018 in which the name under his photo reads “Christian Eriksen.”
Garcia told CBS News she is starting at FSU next semester and saw the emergency response scene near campus Thursday.
contributed to this report.
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