The grandmother of alleged Florida State University gunman Phoenix Ikner reportedly accused his parents of influencing the campus shooting that left two dead and several others injured — ripping the couple as “rotten bastard people.”
Susan Eriksen blamed her grandson’s father and stepmother, Sheriff’s Deputy Jessica Ikner, for turning the “sweetest kid” into an alleged ruthless killer, who claimed the lives of two and wounded five others when he used his stepmom’s former service pistol to open fire on the Tallahassee campus Thursday afternoon.
“They taught him how to hunt, they’re bigoted people, they hated a lot of people,” the 79-year-old grandma told the DailyMail.com at her condo in the Florida capital Friday.
“He was the sweetest kid, smart,” she said while briefly sobbing, before adding, “The rotten bastard people. I have no idea what we’re going to do now, I have no idea.”
Eriksen, the alleged shooter’s maternal grandmother, claimed she hasn’t seen her 20-year-old grandson in a decade, insisting repeated attempts to see him went unanswered following a contentious custody battle between Ikner’s biological mother, Anne Marie Eriksen, and his father, the outlet reported.
The boy’s tearful mother said she was “shocked” at the tragic events that unfolded Thursday.
“I’m just as shocked as everybody else … I’m sorry, this is very hard,” Anne Marie, 46, told the outlet.
“It’s very upsetting … you just don’t think this is going to happen. There’s a lot of up and down today.”
The FSU student allegedly killed two employees of food service company Aramark — Robert Morales, 57, and Tiru Chabba, 45 — and wounded five others before he was shot by officers. He is expected to survive.
Footage circulating on social media depicted a terrifying scene of carnage and panic as the lone gunman fired rapid shots at seemingly random people near the campus’s student union building.
Inker, who was also allegedly caught with a handgun and a shotgun, has since been described as someone who touted “white supremacist” views and spewed “gross” racial rhetoric, according to his classmates.
One classmate, Lucas Luzietti, chillingly recalled thinking that “this man should not have access to firearms.
“I got into arguments with him in class over how gross the things he said were,” Luzietti told USA Today.
“What are you supposed to do? His mother was a cop, and Florida doesn’t have very strong red flag laws.”
Police have not yet offered a motive behind the mass shooting.
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