Suspected FSU shooter Phoenix Ikner learned how to handle guns from his sheriff deputy stepmother, according to the sheriff’s office where she works.
Ikner, 20, was arrested after he allegedly shot two people dead and injured six others at the FSU Tallahassee campus. Video footage showed him seemingly targeting random people as they ran from the shooter stalking the area around the school’s butling student union.
He was identified as the stepson of Leon County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jessica Ikner.
Jessica Ikner is taking a leave of absence from her job because of what happened, Shonda Knight, a spokesperson for the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, told Fox News Friday.
Knight said Phoenix had learned to handle guns as a result of Jessica Ikner being a member of law enforcement.
“His family exposed him to safety as it relates to utilizing firearms,” Knight said.
Knight praised Jessica Ikner for having done a “tremendous job” as a deputy during her 18 years of service and said she’d be taking a leave of absence in the wake of the tragedy.
Phoenix Ikner was also a member of the sheriff office’s Youth Advisory Council, officials said Thursday.
Knight said that Ikner belonged to a group designed to be an “opportunity for youth in our community to be able to express any concerns they had about crime prevention and safety and any of our initiatives, and for us to be to have an open dialog with youth in our community.”
Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil said Ikner “had access” to his sheriff’s deputy stepmother’s weapons, and “that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene.”
But it was later made clear that the gun was not in active service for law enforcement, and had been purchased by Jessica Ikner for her personal use after she received a newer gun from the sheriff’s department. McNeil said the practice was common.
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